Germany has decided to suspend all arms exports to Israel, in response to the announcement of the Benjamin Netanyhu government plan to take control of Gaza.
The announcement came from Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said he believed that he is becoming “increasingly difficult to understand” how Israel’s military plan can allow to achieve his goals in the strip. For this reason “in these circumstances, the German government will not authorize, until new notice, the exports of military equipment that could be used in Gaza”, he said.
Change of historical course
This decision marks an important change of course by the German government, which has always been one of Israel’s closest allies, together with the United States, due to Germany’s historical responsibility in the Shoah.
“The German government remains deeply concerned about the continuous suffering of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip”, added Merz, according to which “with the expected offensive, the Israeli government has an even greater responsibility” for aid to civilians in the Palestinian territory, reiterating the request for full access for “United Nations organizations and other non -government institutions”. The German government also urged the Israeli “to not take further steps to annex the West Bank”.
“We are deleting Palestine”
Last night (Thursday 7 August), the Tel Aviv security cabinet approved a plan presented by the premier to take control of Gaza City, a city already devastated by the war and in the grip of a humanitarian crisis, a first step for a longer -term plan to take control of the entire strip.
Israel, in parallel, is also increasing the number of colonies in occupied West Bank, where the violence of the settlers is now out of control, with almost daily attacks against structures and people. “We are deleting the Palestinian state,” said Israeli Finance Minister, the ultra -tenantic Bezalel Smotrich, in presenting his plans for the return of illegal settlements to Ganim and Kadim and northern Samaria.
“What we have the privilege of doing in this period is the simple cancellation of the Palestinian state, later officially, with the help of God, but first in practice,” said Smotrich.
The Alarm of the United Nations
Criticisms of the employment plan of Gaza have come from several world leaders. The plan “must be stopped immediately”, said the high commissioner for UN human rights, Volker Türk, denouncing that “there are all the reasons to believe that this new escalation will lead to forced mass marries even more numerous, more murders, more unbearable sufferings, senseless destruction and atrocious crimes”.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, asked Israel to “reconsider” his decision. At the same time, he added “it is necessary to release all hostages, held in inhuman conditions. And humanitarian operators must have immediate and without restrictions in Gaza, to provide what is urgent of the field of the field”. “The fire is necessary now,” he wrote on X.
London and Madrid against escalation
“The decision of the Israeli government to intensify the offensive in Gaza is a mistake and we urge him to reconsider it immediately”, said British premier Keir Starmer, claiming that “this action will not serve to end the conflict or to guarantee the release of the hostages”, but “will only lead to other massacres”.
“We firmly condemn the Israeli government’s decision to intensify Gaza’s military occupation,” said Spanish foreign minister, Manuel Albares, adding that this plan “would only cause more destruction and suffering”, and that “definitive peace in the region will only be reached by establishing the solution of the two states, which includes a state of realistic and vital Palestine”.
