Germany: Israel's move towards Rafah "will not be justified"

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that she was "shocked" by Israeli statements regarding the possibility of military movement towards the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, stressing that this "would not be justified."

This came in an interview with a German news website, published on Saturday, in which it touched on statements by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding the military movement towards Rafah.

Burbock expressed her shock when she heard Gallant's statements.

She added: "Moving now in Rafah, the last and most crowded place, as the Israeli Defense Minister announced, will simply not be justified."

She pointed out that the majority of those in Rafah are women and children, and added: "Let us imagine that they are our children."

On Thursday, the Israeli Defense Minister said, in a statement, that “we are achieving our mission in (the city of) Khan Yunis (south of Gaza), and we will also reach Rafah.”

Birbock stressed that reaching a humanitarian truce in Gaza is their top priority.

She continued: "At the same time, we are not giving up working for a lasting peace perspective. Because Israel will not live in safety unless the Palestinians live in safety within their state."

Berbock added: "This state cannot exist unless the Israelis are able to live in safety."

Yesterday, Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned that Israel’s statements about military action towards the Palestinian city of Rafah were “worrying and raise the alarm” for more than 1.5 million Palestinians, ordering them to go there.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that, as of Saturday, left “27,238 killed and 66,452 injured, most of them children and women,” according to the Palestinian authorities, and caused “massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to the Palestinian authorities and United nations agencies.