Baerbock recalled that the majority of the hostages kidnapped by the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas on October 7th were still in the hands of the Islamists – including a one-year-old child. Children would also suffer on the Palestinian side. “It’s about saving these children.”
Baerbock also called on other countries to demand that Hamas release the more than a hundred hostages. The minister reiterated Israel’s right to self-defense and called on Hamas to lay down its arms. She appealed to Israel to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible in its war in the Gaza Strip and to open more border crossings to the narrow coastal strip in order to be able to provide more humanitarian aid to the population.
The war between Israel and Hamas has been going on for more than three months. It was triggered by an unprecedented major attack by Hamas on Israel. Hundreds of fighters from Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the USA and the EU, had committed massacres in numerous Israeli towns. In the attack, 1,140 people were killed and around 250 people were kidnapped as hostages in the Gaza Strip. 132 of them are still in the Gaza Strip, although at least 25 of them are said to be dead, according to Israeli information.
In response, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, at least 24,285 people have been killed there since then, more than two-thirds of them women and children. According to the latest figures from the Israeli army, 190 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli ground offensive began at the end of October.
