Did European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen say that Israel has the right to defend itself even by cutting off water and electricity in the Gaza Strip? No, that's not true: She supports the right of Israel to defend itself but with full respect of international humanitarian law.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by Levipepi3 on October 13, 2023, under the title (translated from Hungarian to English by Lead Stories staff):
Ursula in 2023: Israel has the right to defend itself anyhow, even with cutting water and electricity in the Gaza Strip.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Oct 18 16:46:05 2023 UTC)
The EU Commission published a short press release quoting von der Leyen on October 14, 2023: "The Commission supports Israel's right to defend itself against the Hamas terrorists, in full respect of international humanitarian law." She said nothing about Israel having the right to cut off electricity or water supplies in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, in the same statement, she announced that the EU will triple its humanitarian aid for Gaza to 75 million euros to ensure that civilians in Gaza "can be provided with the basic necessities required."
