19
SEP
2025
Already on Monday, when the Israeli forces began their ground offensive on Gaza, the destruction in the city was extensive. In the previous week alone, more than 600 residential buildings, more than 600 tents, ten schools and five mosques had been destroyed, the Palestinian Authority said; photos showing the targeted destruction of high-rise buildings had gone around the world. By then, only a third of the city's total of just over one million inhabitants had fled - among other things because the supposedly safe zone in the south of the Gaza Strip, into which the Israeli government is trying to expel the people from Gaza, is repeatedly attacked, with fatal consequences.[ 1] The destruction has escalated further in recent days; the Israeli armed forces, for example, attacked the only children's hospital in Gaza several times. According to the health authorities in Gaza, the number of documented deaths has now exceeded 65,000, with 83 percent of all fatalities being civilians according to internal data from the Israeli military (german-foreign-policy.com reported [2]). Scientists assume that a large number of deaths lie undetected under the rubble and the number of victims is therefore even higher. The number of starvation deaths rose to 435 on Thursday, including 147 children. 3]
As death and destruction escalate, the number of resolutions from international organizations sharply criticizing and demanding consequences is increasing. On Tuesday, for example, an independent commission of the United Nations presented a report in which it came to the conclusion that the Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip were clearly genocide. "The responsibility" for this lies with the highest state agencies in Israel, which "for two years have orchestrated a genocidal campaign with the special intention" of "destroying the Palestinian population group in Gaza". 4] "The international community" must not remain inactive, demanded the chairwoman of the commission, Navi Pillay; doing nothing amounts to "complicity". Pillay referred to the international duty of all states to use “all available means” “to stop the genocide in Gaza”. On Wednesday, leading representatives of more than two dozen large aid organizations active in Gaza issued an appeal calling on all states to "use every available political, economic and legal instrument to intervene". 5] Those who fail to do so are not only an accomplice, but also contribute to creating a dangerous precedent.
Meanwhile, the number of governments and parliamentarians calling for concrete measures is also increasing in Europe. The European Parliament, for example, voted on the 11th. September a resolution in which it stated that "the indiscriminate military action" of the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip as well as the targeted starvation of the population could not be justified by anything. 6] With a majority of 305 against 151 deputies and 122 abstentions, the parliament demanded a comprehensive investigation of all war crimes; those responsible must be held accountable, it was said. In addition to sanctions against the far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich (Finance) and Itamar Ben-Gvir (National Security) as well as against violent settler activists, the trade provisions of the EU Association Agreement with Israel should be suspended. In addition, the parliament voted in favor of the two-state solution. Their implementation was urged on the 12th. In September, the UN General Assembly also adopted in a resolution, which it adopted with 142 votes to ten and twelve abstentions. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who was banned from entering the Israeli government in October 2024, judged that the implementation of the two-state solution was "central" for the entire region. 7]
The debate on sanctions in Israel continues to swell in the EU as well – especially since Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated in this year's State of the Union speech last Wednesday that she now supports sanctions against far-right Israeli ministers and the suspension of the association agreement with Israel in the field of trade. 8] The Commission officially presented such proposals on Wednesday. Personal sanctions must be supported by all Member States; for their blocking, it is sufficient for Hungary to veto, for example. On the other hand, the suspension of the Association Agreement for trade can only be prevented if Member States with 35 percent of the EU population are against it. This would be achievable if Germany, Italy and some smaller states shut themselves off. The federal government has not yet officially established itself. In the SPD, voices calling for sanctions are getting louder. Bitter resistance comes from the Union parties. It is "shocking that the President of the Commission is carrying out her unfinited idea of trade sanctions against the only democracy in the Middle East," said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, Armin Laschet (CDU); they must be stopped. 9]
The Federal Government is also slowing down in the question of whether the states of Europe should join the vast majority of all countries worldwide and recognize Palestine as a state. France has announced that it will issue recognition next week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The initiative has prepared it together with Saudi Arabia. Canada wants to join; Britain and Australia are also thinking about the move. Although Germany supported the UN resolution of last Friday, which politically prepared the measure, it was made it clear that it itself would not pronounce the recognition; this could only be at the end of a peace process, it is said. 10] But since a peace process is not in sight and may never be conducted after the armed expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza, the German position boils down to a de facto rejection of a Palestinian state.
[1] Christian Meier: War on high-rise buildings. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/16/2025.
[2] S. to arms cooperation at any cost.
[3] Faisal Ali, Stephen Quillen: Israel ground invasion traps hundreds of thousands in Gaza City. aljazeera.com 09/18/2025.
[4] Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, UN Commission finds. ohchr.org 09/16/2025.
[5] Gaza: Leaders of major aid groups call on world leaders to intervene following UN genocide conclusion. msf.org 17.09.2025.
[6] Parliament pushes for Gaza aid, the hostages' release and justice. europarl.europa.eu 11.09.2025.
[7] General Assembly endorses New York Declaration on two-State solution between Israel and Palestine. news.un.org
[8] S. to this state terrorism.
[9] Thomas Gutschker, Matthias Wyssuwa: Proposal with moderate consequences. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/18/2025.
[10] Michaela Wiegel: Macron does not want to be intimidated. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/16/2025.