The European Union hoped to resume negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority just a few weeks ago, using a new Middle East peace initiative that included peaceful incentives for both sides.

However, all these plans fell apart on 7 October when thousands of rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israeli cities by Hamas, and scores of heavily armed individuals infiltrated southern Israel.

The European Union faced a tough choice, as discussed in the article by Andrii Syniavsky and Sergiy Sydorenko of European Pravda: How attacks in Israel changing EU policy towards the region and what Ukraine should do.

Historically, the European Union has been siding more with the Palestinians compared to the United States.

However, the EU and Israel poisitions have somewhat converged in recent months.

Europe's peaceful aspirations aligned with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's efforts to achieve normalisation agreements with Saudi Arabia.

The proposed agreement included certain concessions to the Palestinians, as acknowledged by Netanyahu. While nobody disclosed the negotiations' details, it seemed their idea was to encourage economic cooperation among Arabs in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, rather than supporting terrorism by Hamas, and to postpone unresolved issues such as coexistence of the two nations in Jerusalem.

It became clear that continuing these plans after 7 October was impossible.

The attack, along with hostage-taking, shootings of unarmed civilians, and other acts, created a clear black-and-white picture where Hamas and the Palestinian authorities took on the role of villains. Subsequently, statements from Brussels soon followed regarding the suspension of any funding for projects in Palestinian territories.

The suspension of EU funds is indeed a significant move.

However, there was also a second source of funding for Palestine, openly linked to terrorism: income from the participation of Palestinians in Hamas operations – an organisation funded by Iran and some other Middle Eastern states, including Qatar.

Hamas, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, may indeed support ideas of EU donors. But it cannot and does not want to give up its fight against Israel, as it would make it useless to its main proxy war sponsor – Iran.

The average Palestinians would not understand such a refusal either. The absolute majority of the region's population sincerely hates Israel.

Israel has also not refrained from inciting Palestinians to this conflict. This includes the expansion of Israeli settlements in territories considered occupied under international law and the general sense of animosity towards Palestinians, further fueled by statements from far-right politicians.

However, all these arguments were nullified on 7 October.

Statements from the highest Brussels officials confirmed that Palestine and Hamas had crossed the red line.

For a while, it seemed that this was a point of no return, that the EU had put an end to funding Palestine... However, it turned out that even the current developments do not allow some capitals to shoot from the hip on this matter.

As it was revealed, the tough statement by Commissioner Várhelyi was not coordinated with the member states. The Hungarian Commissioner in his decision to suspend payments to Palestine went beyond his mandate. As a result, the European Commission had to clarify its position twice in one day.

On 10 October, the head of EU foreign ministries will meet to discuss the situation in Israel.

The old framework of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where Israel formally has the status of an aggressor state, still affects the positions of some capitals.

As for Ukraine, unequivocal support for either side by Kyiv may have undesirable consequences. Perhaps the optimal option for Ukraine is to align itself with the EU's position.