BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is continuing her crisis diplomacy in connection with the Gaza war with further talks in the Middle East. A spokesman for the Foreign Office in Berlin announced on Thursday that the planned stops on the trip, which begins this Friday, are the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The Green Party politician will visit Israel for the third time since the Islamist Hamas terrorist attacks on the country began on October 7th.
The Foreign Office said that the talks would focus, among other things, on the release of the German hostages, the dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza and German efforts to prevent a regional conflagration.
Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, like Qatar, are seen as influential potential mediators, for example when it comes to freeing the Hamas hostages. Hamas took around 240 people hostage in its attack on Israel. According to the families, there are around 20 people among those abducted who also have German passports. Baerbock’s talks are also likely to include efforts to find possible first steps towards a political two-state solution.
On October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other groups killed more than 1,400 people and kidnapped numerous hostages in the Gaza Strip in massacres and attacks in the Israeli border area. The Israeli armed forces then carried out air strikes and moved ground troops into the densely populated coastal strip. The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to more than 10,500, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health. The numbers cannot currently be independently verified./bk/DP/men