Roberta Metsola on Friday met Palestinian peace activist Reem Al Hajajra in the West Bank and relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Tel Aviv. 

The European Parliament president on Thursday became the first EU leader to enter Gaza in a decade as a delicate ceasefire holds between Israel and Hamas. 

During her two-day visit, she travelled to the Kerem Shalom Border Crossing Point to visit humanitarian operations and held talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and the Speaker of the Knesset in Jerusalem Amir Ohan. 

On Friday she started the day in the West Bank "with a very inspiring conversation" with the director of Women of the Sun Reem Al Hajajra.

"Thank you for your relentless determination and unwavering commitment to building peace.

"A truly deserving nominee of the European Parliament's 2024 Sakharov Prize," Metsola wrote on X (formerly Twitter) soon after her visit.

Reem Al Hajajra, Director of Women of the Sun and Sakharov Prize Nominee. Photo: European Parliament

On Friday she also met relatives of hostages held by Hamas.

"Bring them home now... In Tel Aviv, I met with families still waiting for news and listened to the raw testimony of survivors who were kidnapped and rescued or released.

It is impossible to properly articulate the pain they are going through, but I promised that we will keep echoing their voices and the European Parliament will keep doing what we can to get all these girls and boys, women and men, back home," she said on social media.