Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (75) has sharply criticized the German arms export ban.

A statement released by Netanyahu's office on Friday evening said:"Instead of supporting Israel's just war against Hamas, which has carried out the most horrific attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Germany is rewarding Hamas' terrorism with an arms embargo against Israel."

At the same time, Netanyahu confirmed in his statement BILD information that the Israeli Prime Minister had spoken to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (69, CDU) on the phone after the arms ban decision.

According to his office, Netanyahu expressed his disappointment during the conversation. He also made it clear that Israel did not want to take over the Gaza Strip. Instead, the goal of the expanded military operation was to liberate the coastal strip from Hamas and facilitate a"peaceful government."

Merz wanted to strengthen relations with Israel

▶︎ The Israeli Prime Minister's tough statement shows that German-Israeli relations are likely to be severely strained by the embargo decision.

With this, Merz also torpedoed his own promise. In January, a month before the federal election, as the CDU/CSU's candidate for chancellor, he had stated:"Germany is not caught between two stools; rather, Germany stands firmly by Israel's side. There will be no doubt about that in the future." Therefore, he would"immediately end" the export embargo of the "traffic light coalition" government, Merz said at the time."In the future, the rule will be: Whatever Israel needs to exercise its right of self-defense, Israel will get."

Merz justified his arms reversal with the Israeli Security Cabinet's decision to expand the military operation in the Gaza Strip. Among other things, the city of Gaza is now to be captured. The Chancellor criticized:"The even tougher approach decided by the Israeli Security Cabinet makes it increasingly difficult to see how the goals are to be achieved."