Mr. President,

I want to thank you for organizing this important debate today.

Moreover, I want to underline that Germany fully aligns itself to the Statement to be delivered by the EU.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms Hamas’ brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks across Israel on and since 7 October 2023, including horrendous acts of sexual and gender-based violence. Israel has the right to defend itself.

For over three and a half months Hamas continues to attack Israel with rockets on a daily basis and uses Palestinian civilians as human shields.

We reiterate our call for Hamas to immediately release all hostages and lay down their weapons and stop this war.

At the same time, Germany is most gravely concerned about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

To be clear: life in Gaza is hell. The suffering of so many innocent civilians must end. We call on Israel’s military to better protect civilians in Gaza.

We urgently need increased and extended humanitarian pauses, improved humanitarian access and new border-openings to facilitate the distribution of aid to the people in need.

We stand ready in this regard to support the efforts of the Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator, Sigrid Kaag.

The relevant resolutions adopted by this Council need to be implemented immediately by all parties.

We must do our utmost to prevent both regional escalation and a deterioration of the situation in the West Bank, as the German Foreign Minister stressed during her recent trip to the region.

Our collective goal is to pave the way for a sustainable ceasefire leading to lasting peace, based on the implementation of the two-state solution.

Gaza and the West Bank belong to the Palestinians, and they must not face expulsion from Gaza or displacement by settlers in the West Bank.

Israelis and Palestinians will only be able to live side by side in peace based on the two-state solution if each side recognizes the other's suffering and if they understand that the security of one is intricately linked to the security of the other.

I thank you.