By Oliver Towfigh Nia
BERLIN (AA) - Israel’s right to self-defense does not include the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, Germany’s foreign minister stressed on Tuesday.
“I would like to emphasize again that the right to self-defense applies, and that every country, like Israel, has the right to defend itself against terrorism, but it does not include expulsion,” Annalena Baerbock told a joint press conference with Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.
She reiterated the need for Israel’s army to create “safe corridors" in Gaza and for the southern Gaza city of Rafah – home to some 1.4 million people, and the target of an expected Israeli army offensive – calling establishing such protective zones in the enclave “one of the most important tasks.”
Baerbock is scheduled to visit Israel on Wednesday to discuss a likely humanitarian pause in Gaza.
Various Israeli officials have spoken of forcing Palestinians out of Gaza, and some observers have theorized that an attack on Rafah, near the Egyptian border, is meant to force civilians sheltering in Rafah to flee into Egypt, as there are no more choices in Gaza.
Since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, the Israeli offensive into Gaza has killed more than 28,000 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.