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Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is received in Jerusalem by Israel's President Izchak Herzog.
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
The German Foreign Minister is demanding in Israel that civilians be allowed to leave Rafah before an offensive begins.
Israel's army suspects bodies of hostages in a hospital in Khan Yunis.
The overview.
Tel Aviv/Gaza - During her visit to Israel, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for protective corridors to be set up for the civilian population to the north before attacks on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The Green politician said it was important to her that the international community did everything to ensure that the one million people in the city were brought to safety.
Baerbock also called on the countries in the region to put pressure on the Islamist organization Hamas to surrender and release the hostages.
The Gaza war was triggered by the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations on October 7th.
They killed 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250 more as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli soldiers enter Gaza clinic
Israel's army said it began an operation in a clinic in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Soldiers entered Nasser Hospital to recover the bodies of hostages, the military said.
Several suspects were arrested.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari spoke of a “precise and limited operation”.
“We have credible intelligence information that Hamas is holding hostages in Nasser Hospital,” the army said.
None of the information could initially be verified.
Baerbock for expanding aid deliveries
Baerbock described Hamas as the “fundamental evil” of the current situation.
Hamas members raped women and “murdered small children in the most brutal way” in Israel on October 7th.
The terrorists also brought a lot of suffering to children and families in the Gaza Strip.
17,000 children are currently without parents in the Palestinian territory.
The suffering must end, said the Foreign Minister.
“That is our human task.”
Baerbock also spoke out in favor of significantly more aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory - specifically 500 trucks a day.
That's how many trucks carrying humanitarian goods drove into the area every day before the start of the war.
She also called for additional border crossings to be opened.
The Green politician also met Israeli President Izchak Herzog, Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and relatives of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage deal without Israel
There are currently 134 people in the hands of Hamas, but according to Israeli estimates, at least 30 of them are no longer alive.
There has so far been no breakthrough in negotiations in Cairo about the release of more hostages in return for a ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
Israel demands that Hamas give in before further negotiations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would not give in to the “delusional demands” of the Islamist organization.
According to Israeli media, he is refusing to send a delegation back to Cairo, where talks between international mediators should continue.
Relatives reacted in shock and spoke of a “death sentence” for the hostages.
New Israeli attack in Lebanon
The situation in northern Israel on the border with Lebanon continues to deteriorate.
After a 20-year-old soldier was killed in a rocket strike at a military base in Safed in the north of the country on Wednesday, Israel's army attacked targets in Lebanon on Thursday night.
Ten people were killed in an attack on a building in Nabatea.
According to the local hospital, there are seven civilians among them.
The Israeli military said it had killed a high-ranking commander of Hezbollah's elite unit, his deputy and another member of the Shiite militia.
dpa