BERLIN, 22 August 2022, (TON): Nine European countries, including France and Germany, said “they were deeply concerned by the Israeli government’s forced closure of several Palestinian NGOs operating in the occupied West Bank.”

The Israeli military on Thursday said it had conducted overnight raids of seven organizations in Ramallah, the West Bank city where the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters are located.

The foreign ministries of the nine countries said “we are deeply concerned by the raids which took place in the morning of 18 August, as part of a worrying reduction of space for civil society.”

“These actions are not acceptable,” Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden said in a statement.