Germany commits to 'security and existence of Israel' out of responsibility for Holocaust, visiting Chancellor Scholz says

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who arrived in Israel on Tuesday for a solidarity visit, stressed that Berlin “has only one place” during difficult periods for the Jewish people “and that is alongside Israel.”

Scholz became the first Western leader to visit the Jewish state following the Hamas terror group invasion and massacre of 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers on Oct. 7. 

The German leader emphasized that he believes Germany has a special role in securing the Jewish state’s existence due to his nation's responsibility for the Holocaust,

“It is very important to say this today, here during these difficult times in Israel: Germany’s history and the responsibility it had for the Holocaust requires us to help maintain the security and existence of Israel,” Scholz said. 

While the chancellor clearly backed Israel’s right to self-defense, the also raised concerns that Berlin “is not indifferent to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.” He added that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had exchanged views on “improving” living conditions for the Gaza Strip’s more than 2 million inhabitants. 

Netanyahu stressed that Hamas was ultimately responsible for civilian casualties on both sides and accused the terror group of “committing a double war crime” by using civilians in Gaza as human shields. 

The Israeli military has repeatedly urged civilians from the northern part of the Gaza Strip to relocate further south ahead of the expected Israeli ground operation. The reason is that Hamas’s main military assets are believed to be concentrated in Gaza City in the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which is a mere 25 miles in length from north to south.

Netanyahu blasted Hamas for endangering Gazan civilian lives by preventing them from leaving the main war zone in the north. 

“We’re calling on the civilians to leave… go south, to safe zones [in southern Gaza]. And Hamas is preventing them, often at gunpoint, from doing so.”

Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of Gazans have already moved further south despite Hamas and its efforts to cynically keep them as human shields. 

Netanyahu called Hamas “the new Nazis” during the joint press conference with the Scholz. 

"The savagery we witnessed perpetrated by the Hamas murderers coming out of Gaza were the worst crimes committed against Jews since the Holocaust," Netanyahu stated. 

On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden became the second world leader to visit Israel to show solidarity with the embattled Jewish state. 

The Biden administration is concerned that the Gaza war could expand if Hamas’ allies, Iran and its terror proxy Hezbollah, attack the Jewish state from the north. 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian recently threatened to attack Israel if it does not halt its military operation against Hamas. 

“In the coming hours, any preemptive action against the Zionist regime is conceivable,” Amir-Abdollahian warned.

“The leaders of the resistance will not allow the Zionist regime to do whatever it wants in Gaza and then go to other fronts of the resistance,” Iran’s top diplomat added. 

Washington recently dispatched a second aircraft carrier, the USS Eisenhower, to the Eastern Mediterranean in an effort to deter Iran and Hezbollah from actively entering Hamas' war against Israel.