Germany and several European countries raised sharp criticism over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to disarm Hamas and demilitarize Gaza.
The backlash comes after Israel’s security cabinet, on Friday, approved a five-point plan to bring back the remaining hostages and disarm Hamas after twenty-two months of military operation in Gaza. One of the key features of the plan is to take temporary control of Hamas’s main stronghold of Gaza City, located in the north of the enclave.
The sharpest reaction came from Germany, with the country’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz announcing a ‘weapons embargo’ on equipment meant to be used by the Israeli military against Hamas. Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States.
“European and world leaders have criticised Israel’s decision to seize control of Gaza City, warning the move risks exacerbating the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and culminating in Germany’s decision to suspend its exports of weapons that could be used in Gaza,” French TV channel Euronews reported.
“The comments were echoed with even more intensity by other European politicians who made clear that the takeover of Gaza would further aggravate the current humanitarian disaster in the strip and that a ceasefire would be the only way to end the ongoing war with Hamas,” the broadcaster added.
Despite the media hype and the international outrage, the new plan hardly deviates from the current Israeli military strategy in Gaza. “From a military perspective, the cabinet’s decision does not represent a significant departure from the status quo,” the Israeli media outlet Ynetnews reported. “The ongoing strategy involves encircling and depleting Hamas-controlled areas while systematically dismantling its military infrastructure both above and below ground.”
Noting the strategic significance of going into Gaza City, the news website added: “The most significant point of leverage currently in play is the evacuation of Gaza City’s civilian population and the implicit threat of a ground invasion should Hamas refuse to engage in negotiations.”
Germany’s state-run DW TV reported Berlin’s response:
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that Berlin would not approve German weapons exports to Israel for use in the Gaza Strip “until further notice.”The announcement marks a major change of course for Germany, which has been one of Israel’s staunchest international allies.It came as Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan to take over Gaza City, with the government saying it was a necessary move to destroy Hamas and free the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip. (…)Merz reiterated that “Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism.””The release of the hostages and determined negotiations for a ceasefire are our top priority,” he said in a statement.However, “the even tougher military action by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip” that was approved by the Israeli Security Cabinet “makes it increasingly difficult to see how these goals can be achieved,” he added.With the planned expansion of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, the Israeli government “bears even greater responsibility” for providing aid to civilians in the Palestinian territory, Merz said. He called for comprehensive access for UN organizations and other nongovernmental institutions.Merz also said “the German government urges the Israeli government not to take any further steps toward annexing the West Bank.”
Germany was “rewarding Hamas terrorism,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his response to Berlin’s partial arms embargo.
Berlin’s decision comes while Hamas still holds seven German hostages in Gaza. “More than two dozen of the 251 hostages taken into Gaza that day were either German citizens or members of families with German roots eligible for citizenship,” The Times of Israel observed earlier this week.
The Israel Hayom newspaper reported Prime Minister Netanyahu’s response:
“Instead of supporting Israel’s just war against Hamas, which perpetrated the most brutal attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Germany is rewarding Hamas terrorism by imposing an arms embargo on Israel,” Netanyahu said.The prime minister emphasized that Israel’s objective is not to conquer Gaza but to free it from Hamas and enable the establishment of a peaceful civilian administration.Germany is one of Israel’s main arms suppliers, with security exports rising significantly in recent years, especially after the Hamas-led October 7 terrorist massacre.More than 30% of Israel’s defense imports come from Germany, making it the country’s second-largest arms supplier after the US. However, there have been reports of Berlin scaling back or freezing certain arms shipments to Israel, particularly amid the ongoing Iron Swords War and allegations of violations of international law.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who last month proposed to recognize ‘Palestinian’ statehood, also criticized the proposed Israeli plan for Gaza.
“Israel’s plans to take over Gaza City are “wrong” and “will only bring more bloodshed”, Sir Keir Starmer has said,” the BBC reported. “The prime minister urged the Israeli government to immediately reconsider its decision “to further escalate its offensive in Gaza” after Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved the plans overnight by a majority vote.”
United Nations chief António Guterres, one of the most vicious critics of Israel since the October 7 massacre, joined the anti-Israel chorus.
“United Nations secretary-general António Guterres has criticized Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, with the UN chief’s spokesperson saying the decision marked “a dangerous escalation” that risks “deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians,” the British newspaper Guardian reported.
Predictably, the Arab states ganged up on Israel, The Times of Israel reports:
Several Arab and Muslim countries condemn as a “dangerous escalation” Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City.Some 20 countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, say the plan constituted “a flagrant violation of international law, and an attempt to entrench the illegal occupation and impose a fait accompli… in contravention of international legitimacy.
Despite massive international pressure, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was pursuing its task of wiping out the terrorist leadership and fighting forces in Gaza. The IDF, assisted by the Israel Security Agency (ISA), took out several Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror commanders, the Israeli media reports Friday.
“In a joint operation by the IDF and the ISA, several commanders and terrorists from the Hamas and PIJ terror organizations were eliminated. They had taken part in and commanded terror activities against IDF troops in the Beit Hanoun area and inside Israeli territory on October 7,” the military said in a statement on Friday.
The IDF disclosed the details of the operation:
During one of the operations, a terrorist who served as the deputy commander of the Beit Hanoun Battalion of the PIJ terror organization, Muraad Nasser Moussa Abu Jarrad, was eliminated. He had also served as the commander of the battalion for most of 2024.The terrorist planned and directed dozens of terror activities against IDF troops in the Beit Hanoun area and took part in the murderous massacre on October 7.In another operation, a terrorist who served as the deputy head of the anti-tank array in the Gaza City Brigade of the PIJ – Mahmoud Shukri Tiym Dardsawi, was eliminated. He took part in the murderous massacre on October 7, planned and carried out terror activities against the State of Israel and IDF troops in various areas of northern Gaza.In additional targeted operations, several Hamas and PIJ terrorists responsible for rocket fire, mortar fire, and sniping for the Hamas terror organization were eliminated.
An Israeli airstrike in Syria eliminated a senior operative belonging to the Iran-funded Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group.
On Thursday, “the IDF, with the direction of ISA intelligence, struck and eliminated in the area of Beqaa, Lebanon, the terrorist Muhammad Wishah “Abu Khali”, a senior Syrian terrorist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine … in Syria,” the military revealed on Friday.
Wishah was coordinating terrorist activities out of Syria. His terror group is part of the Hamas-led terrorist alliance in Gaza and took part in the October 7 massacre. “The terrorist was responsible for coordinating with other terrorist organizations, strengthening ties and coordination with the Shiite axis, and recently operated to advance military operations against Israeli targets,” the IDF added. “The terrorist Abu Khali was appointed as head of the terrorist organization’s Military-Security Department in Syria, after Shantal Al Aal, his predecessor, was eliminated in a hideout in Beirut in September 2024.”
The PFLP “is a long-standing terrorist organization with a history of carrying out various terrorist attacks against Israeli’s in Israel and around the world,” the Israeli military noted in a statement.
The PFLP, a Marxist-Jihadist terrorist group, gained notoriety in the 1970s for staging a series of deadly hijackings and terrorist attacks targeting Israeli, the U.S., and European civilians, several of them in coordination with the West German communist terror groups, Red Army Faction (RAF) and Baader-Meinhof Gang.
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