Israel’s actions in Gaza can no longer be justified as fighting terrorism, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said, in his strongest criticism yet of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Merz, a staunch supporter of Israel, said on Monday he could “frankly no longer understand the goal of what the Israeli army is doing in the Gaza strip”.
“To harm the civilian population in such a way as has increasingly been the case in recent days can no longer be justified by a fight against Hamas terrorism,” he said at an event organised by German broadcaster WDR.
Merz’s remarks highlight growing unease in Germany about its resolute backing for Israel as international criticism mounts of the Netanyahu government’s conduct in Gaza.
Israel halted all aid deliveries into Gaza for much of the past three months to increase pressure on Hamas in long-stalled ceasefire talks with the militant group, a move that compounded the humanitarian catastrophe for the 2mn people in the enclave.
Arab media and Reuters on Monday quoted a Palestinian official as saying Hamas had accepted what he claimed was a revised ceasefire proposal by international mediators. But a senior Israeli official dismissed the proposal, saying “no responsible government” could accept it and that the Netanyahu government was still committed to an earlier scheme put forward by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Witkoff sided with Israel, telling US news outlet Axios that “what I have seen from Hamas is disappointing and totally unacceptable”.
The head of a private group set to take over Gaza aid deliveries under a plan backed by the US and Israel has resigned saying it would not be able to adhere to humanitarian principles.
The UK, France and Canada last week condemned the Israeli government’s “egregious” actions in Gaza and warned jointly that they would take “concrete actions” if it did not halt its renewed military offensive and allow aid to enter the shattered enclave.
Germany, where support for Israel is seen by many in the political elite as a vital part of the nation’s atonement for the murder of 6mn Jews by the Nazis, did not sign up to that statement.
But the German government’s commissioner for Jewish life in Germany and the fight against antisemitism, Felix Klein, said over the weekend that “starving the Palestinians and deliberately aggravating the humanitarian situation has nothing to do with safeguarding Israel’s right to exist”.
In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Klein said such tactics could not be part of Germany’s “Staatsräson” — a reference to the idea, first articulated by former chancellor Angela Merkel, that Israel’s security was an integral part of its own national interest.
On Monday, several Social Democrat members of parliament, including the party’s foreign policy spokesman Adis Ahmetovic, called for an end to German arms exports to Israel.
“German weapons must not be used to spread humanitarian disasters and to violate international law,” Ahmetovic told the magazine Stern.
While in opposition, Merz harshly attacked the previous German government for pausing weapons deliveries to Israel.
Since winning elections in February, the chancellor has also repeatedly suggested he would like to find a way for Netanyahu to visit Germany without being arrested, despite the Israeli prime minister being subject of a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 53,500 people, according to Palestinian officials. During Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and took 250 hostage.
Merz’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said on Sunday that Germany was in a deep dilemma over what he called an “unbearable” situation in Gaza.
“On the one hand, we stand by the State of Israel. We have responsibility for it,” he said. “And on the other hand, we naturally stand by the fundamental value of humanity and naturally see the suffering of these people.”
Tensions flared in Jerusalem on Monday ahead of the annual Flag March, which draws thousands of Jewish ultranationalists each year.
Jewish youths harassed Palestinian residents and shopkeepers and scuffled with police in the Old City.
In one incident, a Jewish youth tore up a copy of the Koran near the Damascus Gate, the main Palestinian entrance to the Old City, while others chanted racist songs at passers-by that included the phrase “may your village burn”.
Raimon Himo, a Palestinian shopkeeper, said the harassment had begun earlier than in previous years. “It is bad every year, but it never started as early as this,” he said.
Ahead of the march, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, visited the Al Aqsa mosque compound, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The site is one of the most sensitive locations in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tensions around it have helped touch off broader conflicts in the past.
Under a fragile status quo agreement, Jewish people are allowed to visit the site but not pray there. But ultranationalists such as Ben-Gvir have repeatedly challenged the ban.
At the site on Monday he repeated his challenge. “Today, thank God, it is possible to pray on the Temple Mount,” he said, according to a statement from his office.
Jordan’s foreign ministry swiftly condemned his remarks, saying “the practices of this extremist minister . . . do not negate the fact that East Jerusalem is an occupied city”.
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