Rafah: Obey international law in Gaza, Scholz tells Israel

 

By Jörg Blank, dpa I Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024

 

MUNICH – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made an usually direct call for Israel to comply with international humanitarian law, in view of a planned ground offensive against the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

“Obeying international law and the rules is something which is not just something we do because we subscribed to some agreements globally. It is something which is coming out of our perspective of human kind and how we want to be and how we want to see ourselves,” Scholz said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Scholz also reiterated Germany’s demand that Israel move toward a two-state solution that would include recognizing an independent Palestinian state existing peacefully alongside Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has firmly rejected that possibility. Palestinian extremist movement Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel, also does not support a two-state solution.

Scholz said it has become clear that progress toward a two-state settlement is necessary for good relations between Israel and neighbouring countries.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Israel attacks elsewhere in Gaza are currently sheltering in Rafah, a city along the Egyptian border at the southern end of the narrow coastal strip.

Israel’s plans to expand its military operations against the overcrowded city have met with strong international criticism.

Israel’s months-long offensive against the Gaza Strip was launched after Hamas, which rules the territory, launched unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7.

About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led attacks, many of them civilians slain in bloody massacres.

In a new interview with Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Scholz had been even more critical of Israel.

“With regard to Rafah, I am currently very concerned about the possible consequences of the planned ground offensive,” Scholz told the daily.

After the Palestinian civilian population had first been asked to flee to the south in order to find safety, there were now no longer any good escape alternatives in Gaza, Scholz said, and the humanitarian situation is catastrophic.

In Munich, Scholz said that the way in which the war in Gaza is being waged must comply with international law, an issue that the chancellor said Germany has raised in every conversation with the Israeli government.

Israel could count on German support, Scholz assured. At the same time, however, it was also clear that humanitarian aid had to reach Gaza, “and more than we are seeing now.”

Scholz said that Germany is also calling on Israel to take action against violent attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and warned against opening a second front in the war with the well-armed Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

Iran must not be given the opportunity to exploit the situation in order to expand its influence in the region, Scholz said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also warned against launching an offensive in Rafah during her visit to Israel on Thursday, saying an evacuation of civilians would be necessary first.

She also urge Israel to instead to resume talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire which would allow desperately needed humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip.