Germany suspends arms export to Israel after Gaza takeover plan revealed • FRANCE 24 English

Germany suspends arms export to Israel after Gaza takeover plan revealed • FRANCE 24 English

The announcement also sparking a series of reactions from the international community. Germany saying that it will actually be suspending arm exports to Israel for use in Gaza with calls growing from numerous European and Middle Eastern nations for Israel to simply scrap the plan altogether. For more on Germany’s announcement, then we’re going to cross to our correspondent in Berlin, Nick Holdlessworth. Hi, Nick. So, I mean, this marks a pretty significant reversal uh of German policy towards Israel. How big of a deal is it? How much of an impact uh can it make at this stage in the war? This will be a major psychological blow to Israel. Germany has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters uh over the past um 80 years. I mean basically going back to the foundation of the postwar state in 1949 uh supporting Israel’s right to exist has been as Felick Mertz himself said back in June just before the NATO meeting a reason of state razat he said um and the the war guilt that has existed in Germany for many years over the Nazi genocide the final solution they attempted to uh bring to the Jewish people has driven German policy for years now. It’s quite apparent that Israel has stepped over a red line. There’s been growing public uh dismay at what’s been going on in Gaza. People seeing starving children, uh innocent civilians being shot or blowing apart their bombs every day for months and months now. And finally, it looks like the German government has really taken a massive step in German terms and said that’s enough. We agree with Israel’s aims to disarm Hamus. We agree that they should release the hostages, but as uh Fred M said, uh the German government believes that even tougher military action in the Gaza Strip decided upon by the Israeli cabinet last night makes it increasingly difficult to see how those goals can be achieved. And he added, “Under these circumstances, the German government will not approve any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice.” Now, that’s a major statement. Germany uh in the past five years has been second only to the USA in arms exports to Israel. It it’s exported about 30% of the total arms that Israel has imported from other countries and and indeed since the war started in October the 7th 2023 has uh exported around uh 545 million euros worth of equipment directly to Israel. Sorry. at 485 million, just under 500 million euros worth of equipment to Israel. Now, that’s an important point you make there, Nick, about Germany being second only to the US uh in terms of arms exports to Israel. Now, uh that’s important because it looks clearly like the US is nowhere near uh if ever making such an announcement no matter how uh dire the situation in Gaza grows. So with that in mind, I mean, what do you think MS hopes to achieve uh with this policy shift? It’s quite clear that that MS is sending a message to Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s basically saying what you’re trying to do now is just going to uh expand the war. It’s going to draw Israel further and further into a nightmare scenario. We’ve heard some of the guests earlier saying that um it would just result in thousands of uh Israeli soldiers being killed as well as more and more civilians dying. And uh the whole purpose of this policy is to stop arms that could be used in Gaza. And we mean things like uh anti-tank missiles, ammunition, armored personnel carriers, uh other armored vehicles, that sort of thing. Germany actually mostly exports naval equipment to Israel. frigots, torpedoes, things like that. So they have drawn a line saying anything that can be used in a ground invasion of Gaza is a no no. And this really does reflect a shift that we’ve seen gradually in the German foreign ministry. In recent weeks, we saw just last week the German foreign minister going to Israel and saying that eventually Germany could recognize a two-state solution, could recognize a state of Palestine, but that would be at the end of a process rather than the beginning as some European states, most notably France, uh, has said that they would recognize a state of Palestine before any process.

Germany has suspended arms exports to Israel following the revelation of Israel’s plan to take military control of Gaza City. According to FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Berlin Nick Holdsworth, this marks a major turning point in the conflict, as Germany has historically been a steadfast supporter of Israel.
#Gaza #Israel #Germany

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen