Three months after the 7^th of October, when the tragedy started with a terrorist attacks of Hamas, and then the bombing of Gaza and the unbearable number of civilian casualties, I came back to the Middle East, first to Beirut and after to Riyad, talking with relevant actors in the region.

I took stock of two things. First, the dramatic humanitarian situation of the people in Gaza. I had a video conference and got a lot of explanation from UNRWA Director General [Philippe] Lazzarini and from his people in Gaza. And certainly, the situation is appalling, with hundreds of thousands of people having lost their shelters, having no food, being in an extreme miserable situation.

And secondly, the high risk of escalation in the region, in the border of Lebanon – Israel and also in the Red Sea. And we have to avoid these. We have to avoid the war spilling over. The war has to stop, not to expand. And the only solution for avoiding the war [from] expanding is to look for a political solution for the conflict between Israel and Palestine. And this will require a strong commitment of the international community and to start with, the European and the Arab people.

And that is what we agreed with the Prince Faisal [bin Farhan Al Saud] – the Foreign Affairs Minister of Saudi Arabia – to continue the work in that that we initiated some days before the tragedy started, when at the end of September in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, we launched the initiative of the Peace Day [Effort].

Nobody was thinking about the drama in the Palestinian territories, but in the West Bank was already a drama. And in Gaza too. And we started thinking about it and looking for a solution, because peace between the Arab states and Israel is good but is not enough.

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