German counselor Friedrich Mertz said today, Friday, that the government will not agree to the exports of any military hardware to Israel that can be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice, in response to Israel’s plan to expand its military operations there.
Mirtz added in a statement that the release of Israeli detainees and negotiating the ceasefire was the top priority of Germany, expressing his concern about the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, early Friday, that “(the cabinet) agreed to the Prime Minister’s proposal to control Gaza City.”
In a statement, the Netanyahu office said that, according to this plan, the Israeli army “is preparing to control Gaza City, with humanitarian aid to civilian population outside the fighting areas.”
The statement added that “the security cabinet approved, in a majority vote, 5 principles to end the war: the disarmament of (Hamas), the restoration of all detainees- alive and dead, disarming the Gaza Strip, and Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip, and establishing an alternative civil administration that does not belong to (Hamas) or to the Palestinian Authority.”
The statement emphasized that “a overwhelming majority of government ministers considered that the alternative plan” that was presented to the “cabinet” to consider it “will not defeat (Hamas), and will not return the detainees”, without further details.
The decision constitutes another escalation of the 22 -month Israeli attack, which began after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The families of the protesting hostages in Gaza fear that the escalation will lead to the death of their loved ones, and some protested outside the security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. Selected Israeli security officials also opposed the plan, warning of a few additional benefit.
The Israeli army is currently occupying or carrying out land operations in about 75 percent of Gaza, and leads most of its operations from fixed points in the Strip, or from its locations along the border. The army carries out a continuous air and artillery shelling throughout the sector on a daily basis.
The war caused a tremendous destruction throughout the sector, and its inhabitants, who numbered 2.4 million people, have pushed at least once, according to the United Nations, which recently warned, as well as many humanitarian organizations, of the danger of famine in the Strip, and the Hebrew state occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, and withdrew from it in 2005 unilaterally, and disrupted 21 settlements that were established on Its land.
