Foreign Minister meets Netanyahu
Baerbock: Offensive in Rafah would be a “catastrophe with an announcement”
February 14, 2024, 10:34 p.m
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Israel’s army is making preparations for an offensive in Rafah. The announcement caused international criticism. Foreign Minister Baerbock also spoke out in favor of a ceasefire during her visit to Jerusalem. She envisions a reconstruction program for the Gaza Strip after the war.
During her visit to Israel, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a new ceasefire in the Gaza war. This would open a window of opportunity “to free the hostages and to get more humanitarian help in,” said Baerbock on her fifth visit to Israel since the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on October 7th. After talks in Jerusalem, she called on the warring parties to accept a proposal from Qatar and Egypt for a ceasefire and the release of more hostages. However, there had been no breakthrough so far in new talks in Cairo.
Baerbock confirmed that an Israeli offensive in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip would be “a humanitarian catastrophe.” People needed “safe places and safe corridors to avoid being further caught in the crossfire.” The people of Rafah “cannot simply disappear into thin air.” More border crossings would have to be opened so that more aid and medicine could be imported. The UN staff would also have to be able to rely on security guarantees in order to be able to continue distributing aid.
Many of the more than a million people crowding into Rafah followed Israeli calls to evacuate and fled the fighting zones in northern Gaza, “often with nothing more than their children in their arms and their clothes on their backs.” Israel suspects the Hamas leadership and Israeli hostages are in the tunnel network in the south of the Gaza Strip.
“A kind of Marshall Plan”
The security of the people of Israel from Hamas’ terror is just as important as the survival of the people of Gaza, said the minister. “Hamas’ terror has also brought nothing but death and suffering to Gaza.” If they had compassion for their own people, the Hamas fighters would immediately lay down their weapons, she said. It is Germany’s responsibility to stand up for Israel’s right to self-defense within the framework of international law so that a terrorist attack like the one on October 7th can never happen again, said Baerbock.
Regardless of the negative attitude of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas, the Federal Foreign Minister once again spoke out in favor of a political path towards a two-state solution. For the creation of a Palestinian state, security guarantees, a functioning administration and the reconstruction of Gaza are necessary.
Baerbock confirmed that Gaza should never pose a terrorist threat to Israel again. But the Palestinians should not be driven out of the area either. The territory must not be reduced, “not even through buffer zones on the edges of the Gaza Strip.” The Palestinian Authority needs to be reformed, but it can represent the foundation.
The minister demanded “a kind of Marshall Plan” for the economic reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. This can only happen within an international framework. There is a common interest between Israel and its Arab neighbors “not to let the terrorists drive them apart.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the military last week to submit to the government plans for an offensive in Rafah and for the evacuation of the population there. The aim is to destroy the last fighting units of the Islamist Hamas there, said Netanyahu. The announcement caused strong international criticism.