German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in agreement that Hamas must be eliminated, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated following a meeting with Scholz in Jerusalem.
While Israel agreed with Scholz that humanitarian aid had to be increased by land, sea and air, and Israel would do whatever it could to minimize casualties, “we also agreed that Hamas has to be eliminated,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“We cannot have a future for Gaza, a future for peace, a future for Israel if Hamas, a terrorist organization committed to our genocide, remains intact,” he said. “If it remains intact, it will regroup and reconquer the Gaza Strip and repeat the massacre again and again and again.”
Scholz responded that the victims of the October 7 attack would not be forgotten. “Our message has been clear: Israel has a right to defend itself against the terrorism of Hamas, and all hostages must be released. This cruel crime must end now,” he said.
But the German chancellor also noted the “extremely high cost in human lives” and said he had shared his concerns with Netanyahu.
While Israel was pursing a legitimate goal of never again October 7, the question had to be asked whether, no matter how important the goal, could it justify such terribly high costs.
“We cannot stand by and watch Palestinians risk starvation … That is not what we stand for,” Scholz said. He called for a deal on releasing the hostages “with a longer lasting ceasefire.”
In the five months or so of the Gaza war, the number of civilian casualties “is extremely high, many would argue, much too high,” Scholz asserted.
Turning to the situation in Lebanon, Scholz said that Hezbollah had to withdraw from the border with Israel and that military escalation there would have “unforeseeable consequences.”
