Berlin (dpa) – Ten days after the terrorist attack carried out by the Islamist Hamas group, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz set off on a solidarity visit to Israel on Tuesday – the first head of government to do so. While in the country, he plans to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, as well as with the relatives of German hostages who have been abducted to the Gaza Strip by Hamas. He will then travel on to Egypt, Israel’s only neighbour that shares a border with the Gaza Strip.
The talks will focus among other things on how to secure the release of the 200 or so hostages being held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas – which include a number of Germans. In addition, Scholz wants to do whatever he can to avoid a conflagration in the region. Concrete aid could also play a role: military aid for the Israeli armed forces and humanitarian aid for the people in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of whom have been urged by Israel to evacuate ahead of a possible ground offensive.
The Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised the planned visit by Olaf Scholz. “The fact that he is the first leader of a European country to visit us is an enormous expression of solidarity,” Herzog told the German Press Agency on Tuesday. He added that Scholz was a great friend of Israel. And that the support of the entire German leadership, including President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was “incredible”.
Not since the Holocaust had so many Jews been killed in one day, Herzog said. “The images we saw reminded us of the terrible days in the past.” He described Scholz’s visit as “a great message of hope”.
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