2024-03-18 03:36:44
European leaders today issued sharp warnings to Israel. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is in Israel, said the world cannot watch Palestinians starve to death. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas must be reached quickly.
Olaf Scholz questioned the “horribly high cost” of the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza and said the world cannot simply stand by and watch as Palestinians risk starvation in the enclave, Reuters reported.
In a statement after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Scholz said he shared his concerns about the high civilian death toll and insufficient aid reaching Gaza, where aid agencies say famine is looming.
Although many countries have expressed similar concerns, the warning was unusually sharp for the German leader, who has consistently emphasized Israel’s right to defend itself since October 7, when Hamas attacked the country and killed 1,200 people, Reuters noted.
Germany is one of Israel’s staunchest allies along with the US, stressing its commitment to support the country as a sign of atonement for the Nazi Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews.
“The more desperate the situation of the people of Gaza, the more it begs the question: No matter how important the goal, can it justify such an awfully high price, or are there other ways to achieve the goal?” he said. Scholz in English during a joint appearance with Netanyahu.
“How are more than 1.5 million people supposed to be protected? Where are they supposed to go?” Scholz asked. The large number of civilian casualties that would result from the Rafah attack would make regional peace “very difficult,” Scholz said earlier in the day after talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah in the Red Sea city of Aqaba.
Scholz added that he had spoken with Netanyahu about the need for the conditions for the distribution of aid to be “urgently and massively improved”.
“We cannot stand idly by and watch the Palestinians risk dying of hunger,” the German chancellor said. “This is not about us. This is not what we are fighting for.”
Scholz again indicated that he sees the solution to the problem in the existence of two states.
“Lasting security for future generations of Israelis lies in a solution with the Palestinians, not against them,” the chancellor said. “Terror cannot be defeated by military means alone.”
Netanyahu responded that an agreement that made Israel look weak would create an unsustainable peace.
Speaking to reporters earlier in the day in Aqaba, Jordan, Scholz said it was “very clear that we have to do everything to make sure the situation doesn’t get any worse than it already is.”
Meanwhile, the German Air Force made a second delivery of aid to the people of the Gaza Strip today, dropping packages from the air over the war-torn Gaza Strip, DPA reported.
According to data from the Bundeswehr (German military), 4.4 tons of food products were parachuted from a S-130 “Hercules” aircraft that took off from Jordan. Several other countries also sent transport planes as part of the mission.
The situation of civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip, which has been largely blockaded by Israel since October and subject to repeated airstrikes and an ongoing Israeli ground offensive, has become catastrophic, DPA notes.
Aid workers in the Palestinian enclave report acute shortages of food, shelter, medicine, medical care and sanitation facilities.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said today that the Gaza Strip is facing starvation and that a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas must be reached quickly, Reuters reported.
“Gaza is facing starvation and we cannot accept that,” von der Leyen told reporters, speaking in Cairo after signing a strategic partnership agreement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
It is extremely important that a ceasefire agreement be reached quicklywhich would free the hostages and allow more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, she said.
Al-Sisi said Egypt and European leaders had agreed to reject an Israeli military operation in Rafah.
“(An operation) will double the humanitarian disaster suffered by the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the consequences of this operation to liquidate the Palestinian cause, which Egypt categorically rejects,” the Egyptian president said.
The United Nations Children’s Fund said today that more than 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza in the Israeli offensive, adding that many children have suffered from severe deprivation and “don’t even have the strength to cry,” Reuters reported.
The United Nations Children’s Fund said today that more than 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza in the Israeli offensiveadding that many children suffered from severe deprivation and “didn’t even have the strength to cry,” Reuters reported.
“Thousands more are injured or we can’t even determine where they are. They may be buried under the rubble … We have not seen this level of child mortality in almost any other conflict in the world,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell before the show “Face the Nation” on CBS.
“I’ve been in wards with children who are suffering from severe anemia and malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely silent. Because the children, the babies … they don’t even have the energy to cry.”
Russell said there were “very big bureaucratic challenges” in moving aid trucks into Gaza.
International criticism of Israel has intensified over the war’s death toll, the hunger crisis in Gaza and allegations of aid being blocked in the enclave.
A UN expert said earlier this month that Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system as part of a wider “campaign of hunger”. Israel has denied the accusation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN today that US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech calling for new elections in Israel was “completely inappropriate”. reported Reuters.
In a Senate speech on Thursday, Schumer, a longtime supporter of Israel and the highest-ranking Jew to hold elected office in the United States, called for new elections in Israel and said Netanyahu was an obstacle to peace.
“I think what he said is completely inappropriate. It is inappropriate to go to a fraternal democracy and try to replace the elected leader there,” Netanyahu said in the CNN interview.
The speech reflected growing frustration in Washington with Netanyahu, his war-time rule with Hamas, his failure to do more to protect Palestinian civilians and his perceived obstruction of aid supplies to Gaza. International criticism of US support for Israel has intensified due to the death toll and food crisis in the coastal enclave.
Schumer said it would be a “serious mistake” for Israel to reject the two-state solution and urged Gaza negotiators to do everything possible to achieve a ceasefire, release hostages and deliver aid to Gaza.
Schumer also criticized the Palestinians, who support the Islamist group Hamas. He said Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas should also step down.