Germany has announced a partial arms embargo on Israel in a once-unthinkable move, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government agreed to expand the war in Gaza.
The German government will not approve weapons sales to Israel until further notice if they could be put into use in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday.
Israel’s security cabinet on Friday approved Mr Netanyahu's plan to defeat Hamas by fully taking over Gaza, starting with a military operation to take control of Gaza city in the north and displace half the population by forcing them south.
The decision drew international condemnation, with the UN, western nations and countries in the Middle East warning that it would lead to more bloodshed and increase the suffering of civilians in the Palestinian enclave.
Mr Merz said Israel had the right to defend itself and backed the release of hostages and the disarmament of Hamas. But he said Israel's new war plan “makes it less clear than ever to the German government how these goals are to be achieved”.
Germany has historically been Israel's second-biggest arms supplier after the US. It has opposed boycotts and sanctions against Israel, seeing the relationship as a matter of historical responsibility as the country that perpetrated the Holocaust.
European Council chief Antonio Costa said the expansion of the war "must have consequences for EU-Israel relations", although it would be up to the bloc's 27 members to decide what those might be. "The situation in Gaza remains dramatic, and the decision by the Israeli government will only further worsen it," Mr Costa said.
Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza, with the aim of eventually handing it over to armed forces to govern the enclave.
Sources told The National that invading Gaza city would be the beginning of reoccupying the entire strip, 20 years after Israel's “disengagement” from the Palestinian territory.
The UN, UK and Australia urged Israel to back down on its plans to occupy the enclave and displace its population.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said sending troops into Gaza city and other areas would “only bring more bloodshed”.
“This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages,” Mr Starmer said.
Relations between the UK and Israel have deteriorated significantly in recent weeks after Britain said it would recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel met certain conditions, including ending the “appalling situation” in Gaza.
Jordan and Saudi Arabia “strongly condemned” Israel's military expansion plans for Gaza.
Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sufyan Qudah said the move was “an extension of the Israeli government’s extremist policy that employs starvation and siege as weapons against the Palestinian people”.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said the kingdom rejects Israel's crimes of starvation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the decision “runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible”.
Mr Turk warned that the escalation would result in “more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes”.
Switzerland and the Netherlands reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire and a two-state solution, saying Israel's plan would worsen the “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in Gaza and would not help the return of hostages being held by Hamas.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Israel's decision “would only lead to more destruction and suffering”.
Turkey decried Israel's plan as a “new phase of its expansionist and genocidal policy in the region”.
US reaction
The US, meanwhile, has given tacit approval to Israel's move.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended Israel's right to occupy Gaza.
“Ultimately what Israel needs to do for Israel’s security will be determined by Israel,” Mr Rubio told EWTN, a Catholic television network.
He added that while most of the attention was being focused on the humanitarian situation in the enclave, not enough was being given to the hostages still held in Gaza or on the need for Hamas to be removed from power.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Hamas needed to disarm, adding that while the militant group started the Gaza conflict, the Israelis were “the only ones who are going to be able to finish it”.
“It's a tough situation, and Israel did not start [the conflict], but it looks like they're the only ones who are going to be able to finish it.”
The Israeli army already controls about 75 per cent of Gaza, and has displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whose homes and towns have been reduced to ruins.
