In today’s edition of The Capitals, read about the EU edging toward Israel sanctions, a rough landing for the US-EU deal, China ripping into MEPs over Taiwan, and steel safeguards set to hit EFTA states.

Israel ended a truce in Gaza in March, hoping to break Hamas. The move has heightened suffering for Palestinians but achieved few, if any, Israeli goals.

Germany is not planning to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make "long-overdue progress" towards a two-state solution, a German government spokesperson said on Friday.

Former German president Joachim Gauck has criticized Israel's military campaign in Gaza, calling it "disproportionate" and "irresponsible. " "Too much suffering is being inflicted on too many innocent people to punish the guilty,

Israel will coordinate airdrops of aid into Gaza from foreign countries in the coming days, an Israeli security official confirmed to ABC News.

LONDON — Britain threatened Tuesday to take further action against Israel if it does not agree to end the war in Gaza, a day after two dozen mostly European countries condemned Israel’s restrictions on aid shipments into the territory and the killings of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach food.

The answer, of course, is that Israel is manifestly not committing genocide, a legally specific and morally freighted term that is defined by the United Nations convention on genocide as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”

Britain, France and Germany are calling for an immediate end Israel's war in Gaza after dozens of people were killed over a 24-hour period in the territory.