Berlin: Israel has 'no excuse' for blocking Gaza aid

Israel has no excuse for hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, a top German diplomat said on Sunday ahead of a conference in Cairo on the subject next week.

The country must "at last keep its promises to fluidify humanitarian aid into Gaza and to allow sufficient humanitarian access at any moment", said Tobias Lindner, the deputy foreign affairs minister, in a statement published ahead of his trip to Egypt.

"There is no excuse for that. Israel's right to legitimate self-defence finds its limits in international humanitarian rights."

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said something similar in November, accusing Israel of "constantly" reneging on its commitments.

The UN agency that deals with Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Sunday announced it was suspending the delivery of indispensable aid into Gaza through a key crossing point because the situation had become "impossible".

Berlin, which recently increased arms deliveries to Israel, is searching to maintain an increasingly difficult juggling act between its historic support for Israel and its calls for international law to be respected as conflict rages in the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Baerbock lauded the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah as a "ray of hope for the whole region".

However, no such truce appears imminent between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The armed group's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the death of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

In response, Israel launched a withering military campaign on Gaza, killing at least 44,429 there, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.