Germany Says Israel Must Do More To Protect Civilian Lives In Gaza

Israel must do more to protect civilian lives in the Gaza Strip, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, commenting on the latest UN report which said more than 10,000 Palestinian women have been killed since the start of the conflict in the Palestinian enclave last October.

Israel must "of course apply international humanitarian law in everything it does. It must do more to ensure that there is humanitarian access to Gaza. That more humanitarian aid must come into Gaza. That it must do more to protect the civilian population in military operations," Christian Wagner told journalists in Berlin.

More than 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to a report from UN Women, a body for gender equality and women's empowerment. Out of those women, 6,000 were mothers, who have left behind 19,000 orphaned children, it said.

Wagner warned of "losing sight of the situation in Gaza" amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran. Tehran fired a barrage of missiles of drones on Israel over the weekend in response to an April 1 attack in Damascus, which killed several of its military commanders. Israel has vowed to retaliate.

Israel has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a cross-border incursion that claimed around 1,200 lives.

The war has also pushed most of the territory's more than 2.2 million population into internal displacement, much of the enclave is inhabitable and famine is setting in. -