BERLIN: Germany said on Wednesday that 19 of its citizens and 14 of their relatives had been evacuated from Gaza as Israel presses its offensive against Hamas in the Palestinian territory.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said the evacuation on Tuesday “took considerable time” but Berlin was “very relieved that this succeeded through close cooperation” with Israeli officials.
Deschauer added that she welcomed reports of talks, facilitated by regional actors, toward a new Gaza truce.
“That’s important, good and somewhat encouraging, but the current situation is dramatic, and it’s important that all parties return to the negotiating table to achieve a ceasefire,” she said at a regular news briefing.
The war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Israel resumed major airstrikes on Gaza on March 18 after talks on next steps in a six-week truce broke down.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday that the overall toll since the war began had reached at least 50,399 people, most of them civilians.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, speaking during a Berlin visit, deplored the dire humanitarian situation and the war’s impact on children.
“Today, Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world, along with massive numbers of injured adults,” he told the Global Disability Summit.
He said a Jordanian aid project with mobile clinics had helped more than 400 amputees in Gaza, including children.
The UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza and demanded the country uphold its responsibility to “prevent genocide” in the Palestinian territory.
The UN’s top rights body overwhelmingly adopted a resolution putting forth a list of demands to Israel, including calling on it to “lift its illegal blockade” on Gaza.
The text, adopted with 27 of the council’s 47 members voting in favor, four against and 16 abstaining, deplored “the violation by Israel of the ceasefire agreement.”
The resolution, put forward by most members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, demanded “unimpeded humanitarian assistance and the urgent restoration of basic necessities” to Gaza.
It slammed “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare,” and called on all countries “to take immediate action to prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within or from the Gaza Strip.”
The text also voiced “grave concern at statements by Israeli officials amounting to incitement to genocide” and demanded that Israel “uphold its legal responsibility to prevent genocide.”
Wednesday’s resolution called on countries to stop supplying military equipment to Israel.
It also ordered the Commission of Inquiry — a high-level team probing abuses in the conflict — to broaden its investigation to look at “the direct and the indirect transfer or sale of arms, munitions, parts, components and dual-use items to Israel.”
The text called on the UN General Assembly to consider setting up a new investigative team to prepare prosecutions for major international crimes in the conflict.
Several countries took the floor to lament a lack of “balance” in the text.
They included the Czech Republic, which voted against the resolution along with Germany, Ethiopia, and North Macedonia.
