By Siobhan Robbins, Europa correspondent
When some in the EU convicted the strikes in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the German Chancellor hit more carefully.
“The Israeli army and the Israeli government both promised to start a comprehensive investigation of this incident,” said Friedrich Merz.
“And I would like to wait for the results of this investigation before I made a final judgment.”
Only a few in Germany will be surprised by this position – many will support them.
Germany is traditionally one of the strongest international supporters of Israel and has often avoided the tough criticism and tougher tones against the Israeli government, which was taken up by some of its European allies.
It is a loyalty that is rooted in history.
Due to its National Socialist past and historical responsibility for the Holocaust, Germany has had a “special relationship” with Israel for a long time and has been one of his horrific supporters over the years.
This “special relationship” has also led to Germany that did not join other allies such as Great Britain, France and Canada to formally identify a Palestinian state.
“We will not agree with the initiative for the recognition of a Palestinian state,” Merz repeated today at a joint press conference with the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Berlin.
“The Canadian government and the Canadian Prime Minister are aware of the position of the federal government as a state in the event of a possible recognition of Palestine. We will not agree with such an initiative,” emphasized Merz.
Despite this close relationship, the situation in Gaza Germany forced to make its red lines clear in a subtle way.
At the beginning of this month, after the announcement, Merz stood that Germany would not approved any exports of military equipment that could approved “until further” exports of military equipment in Gaza.
The announcement is important and surprised many.
According to the United States, Germany is one of the most important arms exporters of Israel.
In 2023, it approved arms exports worth € 326.5 million, including military equipment and weapons of war, reports of Reuters based on data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Last year, the approvals halved to € 161 million and fell together with a legal challenge by human rights groups who dealt with the potential use of German weapons in the Gaza Red.
While some of his junior coalition partners of the Social Democrat Party (SPD) greeted the partial freezing, some of his conservative colleagues were outraged.
After the announcement, Merz defended his decision in an interview with the public broadcaster ARD and said: “The principles of German politics towards Israel remain unchanged. However, we cannot provide any weapons to a conflict that is tried to be solved exclusively with military means, which could claim hundreds of thousands of civilian victims.”
After a while at home, the Chancellor decided to see the results of the investigation this time before making comments.
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