He was speaking Monday as he arrived in Brussels to attend a ministerial meeting between the EU and its southern neighbors from the Middle East and North Africa.

He will sit at the same table as the Foreign Ministers of Syria and of the Palestinian Authority.

EU Foreign Ministers are set to discuss Tuesday an agreement reached between the EU and Israel on a ”significant improvement” of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Gideon Sa’ar welcomed the participation of Syria in the Brussels meeting. ”We will be in the same room. Let’s see what happens,” he told reporters.

 Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he is sure that ”not any” of the ten optional measures prepared by the EU against Israel for its actions in Gaza ”will be adopted on Tuesday by the member states.”  ”There is no justification whatsoever,” he added.

He was speaking Monday to the press as he arrived in Brussels to attend a ministerial meeting between the EU and its southern neighbors from the Middle East and North Africa,

He added: ”What we see is Hamas stopping people to get the aid directly because they want to be the mediators of humanitarian aid. That is how it became a financial resource for Hamas They threaten people, they shoot people, the kidnapp people, kill Palestinians , attack Americans. But it is crucial that this aid will be given to the people and it is important to disconnect the aid from Hamas. This is part of the things that we have raised in our dialogue with the EU to develop methods that will reach the people and not Hamas.”.”

Monday’s meeting comes on the eve of an EU Foreign Affairs Councils during which the 27 Foreign Ministers are scheduled to examine a set of ten options which follow a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, decided last June,  which concluded that Israel  had breached the agreement’s Article 2 due to its actions in Gaza. A review rejected by Israel as ”absurd.”

The proposals, which are listed with their legal basis and the procedure to adopt them, include suspending the “entire” EU-Israel Association Agreement, halting political dialogue with Israel, or barring Israel’s access to EU programs, all of which require unanimity among 27 member states.

European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica said on Monday that she does not expect major EU member states to change their stance regarding the review of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

However, the southern neighbourhood ministerial meeting takes place a few days after EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced on Thursday that the EU and Israel had agreed to a “significant” improvement of humanitarian aid access into Gaza.

In a statement released on Thursday, Kallas said the steps to improve humanitarian aid include, among other things, the substantial increase of daily trucks for food and non- food items to enter Gaza, the opening of several other crossing points in both the northern and southern areas, the reopening of the Jordanian and Egyptian aid routes, enabling the distribution of food supplies through bakeries and public kitchens throughout the Gaza strip,  the resumption of fuel deliveries for use by humanitarian facilities, up to an operational level,  the protection of aid workers,  the repair and facilitation of works on vital infrastructure like the resumption of the power supply to the water desalination facility.’’

‘’These measures are or will be implemented in the coming days, with the common understanding that aid at scale must be delivered directly to the population and that measures will continue to be taken to ensure that there is no aid diversion to Hamas,’’ Kallas stated.

EU Foreign Ministers are to discuss this agreement on Tuesday.

Speaking after Saar’s arrival, Kaja Kallas stressed that it is not only the agreement (with Israel) but also the implementation of this agreement.’’

‘’We see some good signs of more trucks getting in and more supplies to the people of Gaza but of course we know that this is not enough and we need to push for more and to improve the situation on the ground,” she said.

Asked by European Jewish Press, Sa’ar declined to say which bilateral meetings he would have in the margin of Monday’s meeting. ”I have a lot of bilateral meetings but not always I announce them. But I will announce them at some point,” he said. But he welcomed the participation of Syria in the Brussels meeting. ”We will be together in the same meeting .Let’s see what will happen, ” Sa’ar said.

It is the first time in eleven years that a Syrian Foreign Minister is participating in the EU Southern partnership.

The meeting involves ministers and other representatives from all 27 EU countries as well as Israel and  Arab countries like Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco,  Syria, Tunisia and the Palestinian Authority whose Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin as well as Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani will be at the same  room as the Israeli minister.

This partnership is part of the broader European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) which aims to foster cooperation and development in the region. The main focus of the day will be the New Pact for the Mediterranean, which aims to deepen EU engagement in the Southern Mediterranean region.

Monday’s meeting was originally scheduled to take place in June but it was postponed by the EU because of the situation in Gaza.

‘’I aml happy to be  in Brussels for this  important initiative involving EU countries with Mediterranean  and North African countries. It is a very important dialogue. I hope that developments taking place in the Middle East during the last two years will help defeating the radical axis in the region and enlarge the Abrahamic alliance and bring normalization and peace in the Middle East,’’ Sa’ar said.

In an interview with Euronews, the Israeli minister insisted that his country “doesn’t ‘have any intention to control Gaza long term,’’ adding that Israel has “only security concerns” over Gaza. .

He said the Palestinian terrorist movement Hamas “cannot control the Gaza Strip” and “cannot be part of the future of Gaza.”  “If Hamas is ready to lay down its arms, if they are ready to demilitarise the Gaza Strip, we can do it in a political path,” he said.

He deemed “ridiculous” criticism from several Western countries that Israel’s military response in Gaza is disproportionate.