Israeli Defense Minister Joav Gallant indicated on Friday that the fighting would expand to Rafah on the border with Egypt, where, according to the UN, more than half of the more than two million residents of the Gaza Strip have now fled. The units of the radical Islamic Hamas militia in Rafah would be “dissolved” just as they were in the city of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, Gallant said during a visit to Israeli soldiers.
Baerbock told the RND newspapers that she and her US partners have been trying for some time to make it clear to the Israeli government “that the people in Gaza cannot disappear into thin air.” She also called for security guarantees for the implementation of a two-state solution. “International security guarantees are needed so that hateful terror no longer emerges from Gaza,” said Baerbock.
The second necessary element is the establishment of a genuine Palestinian administration. To achieve this, the Palestinian Authority must be reformed. Thirdly, the Gaza Strip must be rebuilt with the help of a kind of Marshall Plan. These are “pieces of the puzzle,” said Baerbock. “We have to bring them together now.”
The dismantling of Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas and the recognition of the Palestinian state must also be discussed. The prerequisite is a new ceasefire in which the Israeli hostages would be released. “As long as the hostages are not free and the daily inhumane suffering of children and civilians does not subside, the Gordian knot will be difficult to break and no one can talk about the day after. That is why a new ceasefire is so crucial,” said Baerbock.
Baerbock once again spoke out against the dissolution of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which is under massive pressure. “The UNRWA structures in Gaza are also used by other UN actors such as Unicef or the World Food Program. They cannot really be replaced quickly in these acute days of war, also because the other organizations there are currently no longer able to function without security commitments from the Israeli army can really help,” said the Foreign Minister. Israel accuses a number of UNRWA employees of collaborating with Hamas and has also presented documents and documentation on this matter.
The Gaza war was triggered on October 7th by the attack on Israel by Hamas, which the USA and the EU classified as a terrorist organization. According to an AFP count based on Israeli data, more than 1,160 people in Israel were killed in the attacks and around 250 others were taken hostage, mostly civilians, including many women and children.
Since then, Israel has taken massive military action in the Gaza Strip, with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. According to recent figures from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 27,100 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war began, including many women and children.
