Jerusalem (dpa) – Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for more opportunities for aid shipments in view of the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip. “The suffering of so many innocent people cannot go on like this. We need less intensive management of operations,” Baerbock said after talks with Israel’s President Isaak Herzog and Foreign Minister Israel Katz in Jerusalem. At the same time, she called on Israel to make it easier to arrange aid shipments to the Gaza Strip, saying that too little aid was reaching people there.
Baerbock had set off to visit the Middle East on Sunday. This is her fourth trip to Israel and the region since the militant Islamist Hamas group carried out its terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel responded by launching massive air strikes and a ground offensive. During her visit to Israel, Baerbock once again voiced support for a two-state solution. She said this was “the only chance for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace side by side”. Following visits to Israel and the Palestinian territories, she is travelling on to Egypt.
According to the German foreign minister, the German government is open to the idea of supplying Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia can contribute to the security of Israel and to preventing a wider conflagration in the region by intercepting rockets fired at Israel by Yemeni Houthis, she explained.