Europe has essentially become irrelevant, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu tells Euronews

Europe has been absent from a ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas because it has "basically caved in to Palestinian terrorism (and) radical Islamist minorities," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Euronews in an exclusive interview on Sunday.

"That's why Europe has essentially become irrelevant and displayed enormous weakness," Netanyahu stated, adding that it was US President Donald Trump who took the leadership and initiative for the "realistic" ceasefire deal.

"What should be done is exactly what President Trump is doing. He's presenting a realistic peace plan that eliminates the terrorist elements, the elements that want to continue the war again and who vow to repeat the massacre of 7 October again and then (some)."

He slammed the decision of 15 out of 27 EU member states to recognise the Palestinian state, calling it "an ultimate reward (to) Islamists".

"They (Europe) basically said let's just give them a Palestinian state which would be the ultimate reward for Hamas after doing the greatest massacre against the Jews since the Holocaust," Netanyahu said.

He claimed that this decision caused "enormous damage" not just for Israel but for the whole of the Middle East.

"Imagine that after 9/11, people would say, okay, now let's give state to (Islamist terrorist leader Osama) Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Not only will we give them a state, it will be one mile from New York, which is what they're suggesting," the Israeli premier said.

Netanyahu insisted this is not "going to promote peace". "First you have the strength, then you have peace," he explained.

"Now what these European leaders are saying, let's weaken Israel to the point where it's fighting for its survival against another Palestinian state, this time right at the outskirts of Jerusalem, in fact, within Jerusalem, and right above the hills above Tel Aviv. That's absurd," Netanyahu pointed out.

Israel's prime minister said he hopes the European countries that recognised the state of Palestine will "rethink" this decision.

"We'd prefer to have not only good relations with Europe, but good relations with a realistic Europe, and one that would bring real peace as opposed to the repetition of horrible war," Netanyahu said.

Israel's premier said he was constantly in touch with European governments.

"I hope that Europe changes its direction. Some of it has, but some of it hasn't," Netanyahu said. "I hope the part that hasn't rethinks, not only for our sake, but for Europe's sake too."

The EU widely welcomed the latest ceasefire effort and a plan initiated by Trump, describing the latest developments as encouraging and saying the moment must be seized.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added that the bloc was ready to support efforts to end civilian suffering and promote the only viable solution for peace, which it believes is the two-state solution.

The EU recently announced that it is going to suspend its "bilateral support" with Israel and partially suspend the trade parts of its association agreement with Israel.

But this step requires a qualified majority among the 27 member states, while several countries, including Germany, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic, have continuously blocked efforts to sanction Israel.