The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has denounced the European Union's invitation to the Israeli occupation prime minister Yair Lapid to attend the EU-Israeli Association Council meeting. 

"Holding the EU-Israeli Association Council meeting for the first time in more than 12 years, as the Israeli occupation state continues to commit war crimes in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem and build colonial settlements on Palestinian territory only encourages the Israeli occupation to go ahead with its racist behaviour and continue its appalling violations of international law and human rights," Hamas official Basem Naim said Sunday evening.  

Naim explained that reactivating the council reflects the EU's double standards towards human rights as such a move would alleviate the pressure placed on the Israeli occupation, which has been accused of apartheid by a number of international human rights groups. 

The Hamas official urged the EU to backtrack on this step and not whitewash the Israeli occupation's crimes and ongoing violations of international law and international humanitarian law. 

Naim called on the EU to take practical steps to exert pressure on the Israeli occupation to end its continued occupation of the Palestinian lands, its siege on Gaza, and crimes against Palestinians, particularly in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to adhere to its duties towards the Palestinian people as an occyping power and their rights to freedom, independence, and self-determination.