Merz underlines Germany's support for Israel, calls for Gaza ceasefire
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered a wide-ranging government statement on Tuesday in which he said the country's "reason of state" is to defend Israel's existence, condemned Russia's attacks in Ukraine, and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Addressing lawmakers in the Bundestag ahead of the NATO summit at The Hague, Merz said "we must never get used to the horrors of war", before going on to speak about Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and the Israel-Iran conflict.
Germany's chancellor said Israel "has a right to defend its existence and the safety of its citizens" against Iran, and that Germany's "reason of state is to defend the state of Israel in its existence". He also told parliament that Iran "must not have nuclear weapons".
"Today, we hope that the actions of Israel and the US in the past few days will permanently dissuade Iran from continuing its destructive course," Merz said, referring to US President Donald Trump's decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend in a war that has now been raging for 12 days.
Merz emphasised that the EU and the wider world are "threatened" by Iran's nuclear programme, and said Germany would undertake diplomatic efforts in a bid to stop the conflict with Israel.
The German chancellor also promised to find a humanitarian solution to Israel's war in Gaza, and called for a ceasefire.
"The moment has come to conclude a ceasefire for Gaza," he said. While Germany would continue to support Israel, it also will "critically question what goal Israel wants to achieve in the Gaza Strip", according to Merz.
In his speech, Merz also condemned Russia's latest airstrikes on Ukraine and said that Moscow does not want peace.
"Genuine, lasting peace requires a willingness for peace on all sides," he said. "Russia, on the other hand, has made it clear in a barbaric way with its new wave of attacks on the Ukrainian civilian population that it does not currently have this willingness for peace."
Earlier on Tuesday, Germany's Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil vowed to lift the country's defence spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product in 2029.
At the NATO summit at The Hague on Tuesday and Wednesday, member states are expected to agree to raise defence spending from 2% of GDP to 3.5%, plus another 1.5% for potentially defence-related infrastructure.
Merz told lawmakers in his address that increasing defence spending and beefing up the country's military is vital to Germany's future.
On the topic of domestic affairs, Merz promised to tackle migration and said that EU member states are united in the view that tariffs are damaging to the bloc.
The European Commission is set to begin negotiations with the US on tariffs in July, and Merz stated that several options have been prepared in case the talks are not successful.
"The EU and can and will defend its interests," Merz said, before adding that he believed the US has economic reasons to continue working with Germany and Europe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
32 minutes ago
- France 24
Israel: Arab-Israelis face unequal access to bomb shelters
00:58 Jaffa resident Nasser Kteilat, an Arab-Israeli, sent this video to the FRANCE 24 Observers team. The footage captures Kteilat outside a building housing a shelter, where he states that the access code has been changed, rendering the shelter inaccessible. Nasser Kteilat, an Arab-Israeli – a citizen of Israel who belongs to the country's Arab population – lives in the municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. He sought refuge in a bomb shelter near his apartment on June 13, the first day of the Iranian bombardment. The bombings started here. It was very close to our home, like often. Most of the time, bombings happen in Tel Aviv. Usually, during previous attacks with Hamas, we would go down to the stairs of the building. But this time, it was different. These were Iranian rockets, much bigger and more dangerous. Our building is mixed: Arabs, Jews, and Christians. So, we went down on the first day and neighbours were there. We sat down, each on our own side. They looked at us with a lot of anger. It was only for 15 minutes, so it was okay. We are used to it… We are the Arabs here… They don't like us. Then, when it was over and we wanted to go out, a young woman stopped us. She spoke as if she was sorry, as if she liked us, but she said the neighbours had decided not to let anyone in at the next alert. What's strange is that she doesn't even live in the building, yet she was the one treating us like strangers. I came back the next day. Even before I arrived, they had changed the code. They didn't want us to come in. So I called the municipal centre. A woman answered and started saying: 'Yes… They won't let you in because you're Arabs.' I went back the next day, because of a new alert. A neighbour was outside and gave me the new code. The code was 1948 [Editor's note: the year of the expulsion of Palestinians from the newly established State of Israel, known by Palestinians as the "Nakba', Arabic for "catastrophe."] It's sad, it's awful. You feel at home and at the same time like a stranger. You're no longer welcome. This isn't an isolated incident. Since the initial Iranian attacks on June 13, several videos have been circulating on social media, showing scenes where individuals are being turned away or prevented from entering Israeli shelters. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to Ofer Cassif, an Israeli lawmaker for the left-wing Hadash-Taal alliance: Since the war with Iran began, there have been daily cases of people who have to run to shelters because of the sirens. Almost every day, there are cases of people who are not allowed into a shelter. Cases have been reported, mainly involving Arab citizens, but also foreign workers, families from Ukraine, and people with pets. These incidents don't just involve Israeli-Arabs. A family was not allowed because they had children. Other people were rejected because they came from another building. It's illegal to refuse or disallow someone from entering a shelter, even if it's in a private building. You must allow it, as required by law. On June 19, Cassif took to X to call on the Home Front Command – the Israeli military unit responsible for civilian protection – to establish a dedicated hotline for reporting instances where individuals are denied access to shelters during alerts. In his letter, he condemned a 'fundamentally flawed phenomenon that primarily affects the weaker sections of society and minority groups that suffer from severe protection and integration problems, and from racial and social discrimination'. While these discriminatory acts target foreign workers, Arab-Israelis, and even other Israelis, Cassif said that 'most of the dozen or so cases documented primarily involved Arab citizens'. Unequal protections for Arab and Israeli communities An Iranian missile strike in Tamra, northern Israel, killed four women and injured about a dozen people on June 14. Cassif said: In this Arab city of nearly 40,000 residents, there are no public shelters. Just a few kilometres away, there is a Jewish community of fewer than 10,000 people, and they have more than 10 shelters. In Israel, there are about 9 to 10 million people, and about two and a half million don't have a shelter or even a secure room to go to. So it's definitely a problem, mainly for Arabs, but not only. This is an issue of institutionalised racial discrimination. A 2018 report by the Israeli State Comptroller on the protection of non-Jewish civilians found that 46% of Arab citizens in Israel lack access to adequate shelters, compared to 26% of the general population. Several Israeli NGOs, including Sikkuy-Aufoq, an organisation dedicated to promoting equality and partnership between Jewish and Arab-Palestinian citizens, have for years condemned these structural inequalities in civil protection. Sikkuy-Aufoq highlights a substantial gap in access to public shelters. Another example highlights this disparity. Along Highway 85, a major road connecting western and eastern Galilee, Arab communities have only one bomb shelter for every 26,000 residents, whereas the nearby Jewish city of Karmiel has one shelter for every 440 people, according to Sikkuy-Aufoq. Furthermore, legal hurdles severely impede the installation of protected rooms (known as "mamads") in private Arab homes, excluding many families. Sikkuy-Aufoq also warns of limited access to information on this issue, particularly due to documents not being translated into Arabic. This lack of translation hinders requests for administrative exemptions that would facilitate such construction. These inequalities extend to school protections as well: 26% of Arab schools lack adequate protective infrastructure, compared to 13% in Jewish communities. 'They try to find solutions by themselves' This discrimination also affects the Bedouin people, most of whom are Arab-Israelis, living in villages not recognised by the Israeli state, particularly in the southern Negev Desert. Cassif explained: 'Most of these villages have existed since before the establishment of the State of Israel, but Israel considers them illegal entities. Because of that, they have no basic infrastructure, no electricity, running water, gas – and no shelters. In those areas, the citizens are in the worst situation: they have nothing and nowhere to go.' Even in the towns that are supposed to have basic services, about half the residents lack access to missile shelters, according to Adalah, an NGO working to protect the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel. The situation is similar in both recognised and unrecognised villages: there are few or no roads, infrastructure, shelters, or alert sirens. Regardless of their legal status, living conditions remain extremely precarious. Marwan Abu Frieh, a regional coordinator for the Negev region and a field researcher at Adalah, told our team: 'More than 12,000 shelters would be needed to properly protect these communities.' The NGO, aided by other Israeli and foreign organisations, managed to gather only 350. Facing a complete lack of assistance from the Israeli government, local organisations like Adallah and municipalities are stepping up to build mobile shelters, each costing a minimum of 50,000 shekels (12,000 to 14,000 US dollars). Abu Frieh continued: Since October 7, they have been trying to find solutions by themselves. They go under the bridge of the highway. They try to put containers in the ground to use them as shelters for children, the elderly, mothers… Many Bedouins have nothing. Without internet on your phone, you can't even receive siren alerts. And if you don't have a shelter, you have nowhere to take refuge. Children are afraid, men and women too. People run under the bridge when sirens come. Some of them stay there day and night. But over 130,000 people remain without any protection or aid because the government refuses to intervene in unrecognised villages, which it deems to have no legal status. All construction in these communities is deemed illegal, as no permits have been issued. However, even residents in recognised villages face the same roadblock: no permits are granted. Authorities claim this falls under national security and military command, placing it outside the purview of the Supreme Court.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
The 12-day war: will Israel-Iran conflict reshape the region?
42:29 Donald Trump first going all in with B2 bomber raids against Iran's nuclear installations and then surprising allies and adversaries alike with a late Monday ceasefire announcement. All this for a victory lap at the NATO summit opening in the Netherlands? Whether it's strategy or impulse that's driving the US president, we'll attempt to make sense of an operation resisted for decades by all of his predecessors including himself in his first term. Why did Israel finally get its wish of a US-backed direct confrontation with Iran? Will it reshape a region where it's as much Israel as the United States that's imposed its will on Tehran's proxies and allies in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza? Who owns this one? And what does this seeming once in a generation shift in the balance of power mean for the Middle East and for the planet? Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Ilayda Habip.
Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
NATO shifts focus as US retreats from leading role on Ukraine
All 32 NATO allies are meeting in The Hague for the annual leaders summit where NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters that Russia remains "the most significant and direct threat facing the alliance." But in contrast to last year, the focus on Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine is notably diminished from formal discussions. Instead, the summit is pursuing a narrower ambition of pushing for allies to commit to spending 5% of GDP on defence. "We know that the position of the United States has changed and therefore also here at the NATO Summit", Dutch Defence minister Ruben Brekelmans told Euronews. "The main topic, of course, is the 5% is a new, this historic step for our defence. But Ukraine remains equally important to us", he said. Ukrainian President Zelensky is attending the dinner the Netherlands' King Willem-Alexander alongside leaders, and is also expected to meet with President Trump on the side-lines of the summit. However, this year he won't be present at the North Atlantic Council of heads of state and government. In contrast, at last year's NATO summit under the Biden administration Ukraine was given "irreversible" assurances of a path to membership. Allies assured Kyiv that it was on an "indestructible bridge" to join the alliance. "Trump signalled he wanted the indestructible bridge off the table from the start," Jason Israel, former member of the Biden administration's National Security Council and senior director for defence, told Euronews. "If I was Ukraine, of course I'd be nervous about how this is playing out at the moment," he said. There's a growing acceptance that the US - although still providing Ukraine with vital intelligence - will no longer provide Ukraine with lethal weapons similar to that donated by the Biden administration. "The real issue, is that the US does not see Ukrainian security as essential to European security, and our European allies do so," said Kurt Volker, former US representative to Ukraine in the last Trump administration. Europe "feels that if Putin is allowed to prevail in Ukraine, or if Ukraine does not survive as a sovereign, independent state, they are at risk, and that is a big security threat for Europe and NATO," he said ahead of the summit at an event organised by the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). Europe sees "the need to support Ukraine as integral to our security through NATO, the US simply doesn't see it that way," said Volker. At the same time, NATO officials warn Russia is continuing to make gains around Sumy Oblast and Eastern Ukraine, although their assessment doesn't predict Ukraine will be encircled. Instead a high attrition rate and a slow, protracted conflict is expected to continue. This is despite the remarkably high casualty rate – NATO says Russia's troop losses have surpassed one million since the start of the full scale invasion. Russia is currently "taking" 1,100 daily casualties, "down from peak in January of 1,500," they said.
