Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a press statement that "the German Chancellor's statements justifying the continuation of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip for two years reaffirm the extent of German support, both politically and militarily, for the genocidal war against our people in Gaza."
He added that these statements come "despite the global consensus that it is the occupying government that has turned it into an open war," calling on Meretz to "stop its complete bias towards the occupation's aggression and to cease trying to justify its crimes."
Qassem urged the German Chancellor to "join the position of global conscience that condemned the Israeli crimes in Gaza."
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz affirmed on Thursday, during a press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential complex in Ankara, "Germany's unwavering support for Israel," claiming that what it is doing in Gaza falls within the framework of "the right to self-defense."
President Erdoğan responded to these statements, reiterating his rejection of any justification for the genocide in Gaza. He pointed to the martyrdom of more than 60,000 Palestinian civilians and Israel's continued policies of extermination and starvation, asking rhetorically whether Germany was unaware of this. During the conference, he emphasized the necessity of restraining Israel and putting an end to the massacres and famine inflicted upon the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
During the war of extermination that Israel began on October 8, 2023, it killed 68,643 Palestinians and injured 170,655 others, most of them children and women.
The genocide also caused widespread destruction of 90% of the civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at around $70 billion.
