March 24 (UPI) — The German Foreign Ministry condemned illegal Israeli settlements on Sunday after Israel confiscated 800 hectares, or about three square miles, of Palestinian land.
“We strongly condemn the announcement to confiscate over 800 hectares of land in the Palestinian Territories as Israeli state land,'” the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“This would be the largest appropriation in over 30 years. The settlements violate international law and fuel further tensions in this extremely fragile situation.”
Before the war broke out in October, 199 Palestinians were killed by Israelis in the West Bank throughout 2023 — including at least seven murdered by illegal Israeli settlers, data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows.
The situation has gotten worse throughout the war, with Israeli citizens seizing groves of pomegranate trees and fig trees from Palestinian farmers as Israeli settlers force hundreds of Palestinians from their homes.
Still, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock emphasized support for Israel’s security in a statement on Sunday.
“In the hell of Gaza, more than a million children, women and men are threatened by hunger. This must not go on for a single day. Together with our partners, we are leaving no stone unturned. The Israeli government must finally open the border crossings for much more aid,” she said.
“We stand by our responsibility for Israel’s security: Hamas must lay down its arms and must never again bring terror to Israel. But the goal cannot be achieved purely militarily. And military action has its limits in international humanitarian law.”
She added that “only an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” that leads to a permanent ceasefire will keep the hope for peace alive as she gears up for talks in the region this week in which she said she will discuss “what a political horizon can look like.”
Since the Palestinian militia Hamas attacked on October 7, Israel’s allies such as Germany have repeatedly upheld that Israel has a right to defend itself, without stating whether that same right is extended to Palestine.
Some have pushed for a demilitarized Palestinian state led by the government of the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank. So far, calls for a two-state solution to the conflict hinge on borders for Israel and Palestine established in 1967, which would not bridge the enclave of Gaza to the West Bank.
And, they are dependent on Hamas being defeated in Gaza or handing over power. The same would be said of Israel, which would effectively have to admit that it has sanctioned illegal settlements in Palestinian territories in violation of international law.
Meanwhile, experts including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken are increasingly warning Israel that its strategy in Gaza could lead to insurgency from a population that has suffered from Israel’s aggression.