German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday criticized the Israeli army’s actions in Gaza and called for a ceasefire.
“Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism. But international humanitarian law sets limits to any war,” the politician said in a statement. “This war in Gaza must finally end.”
Nearly 80 percent of the Gaza Strip has been declared an evacuation zone by the Israeli military, Baerbock said. “And even the few and absolutely overcrowded places that have been declared safe zones by the Israeli military are being hit again and again,” she added.
The army has a duty to protect the Palestinian civilian population, Baerbock said. “People cannot just disappear into thin air, they urgently need support and security,” she argued.
Baerbock said the Palestinian militant group Hamas has “used Palestinians in Gaza as human shields since October 7” and “repeatedly used civilian locations for their terror.”
Meanwhile, the German government said it was deeply concerned about the Israeli parliament’s rejection of the creation of a Palestinian state.
The resolution “is contrary to several UN Security Council resolutions. Israel is thereby distancing itself from the vast majority of the international community and isolating itself,” a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said on Friday.
On Thursday, a majority of Knesset members voted in favor of a resolution rejecting the creation of a Palestinian state.
“The establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel would pose an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens,” the resolution said.
