Germany is set to provide another €5 million ($5.7 million) in aid for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Friday, the second day of his visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
Wadephul said the money would go to the UN’s World Food Programme to be used primarily for “bakeries and soup kitchens to provide the people of Gaza with bread and hot meals in the medium term.”
Berlin also plans to fund a field hospital run by the Order of Malta to provide urgently needed basic health care in Gaza City, the minister added.
Wadephul called on the Israeli government to quickly resume close cooperation with the United Nations and its organizations on the ground to improve the distribution of humanitarian aid in the embattled Gaza Strip.
UN staff had “clearly shown that they are able to provide sufficient supplies to all people in Gaza if they are allowed to do so and if they can work in safety,” he said.
While Germany’s top diplomat conceded that some of the aid might end up in the hands of the Palestinian extremist group Hamas, he stressed that “the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip is now so great that it is not justified to create further obstacles here.”
Moreover, the best way to prevent abuse is to allow as much food and aid as possible into the Gaza Strip, he added.
Israel is facing an international outcry over the situation in the sealed-off coastal strip after its military campaign of more than 21 months in response to the October 7 attacks has rendered much of the Strip inhabitable, and with aid organizations warning that the population is on the brink of famine.
According to the German Foreign Office, German humanitarian aid for the Palestinian Territories has totalled more than €330 million since the start of the fighting in Gaza in October 2023.
More than 95% of the money is used for the population in the Gaza Strip, it said.
