Germany Halts Arms Exports Over Gaza War

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday in an interview with public broadcaster ARD that Berlin cannot supply weapons to a war that is now being pursued solely by military means.

"We cannot deliver weapons into a conflict that is now being pursued exclusively by military means," Merz said. "We want to help diplomatically, and we are doing so."

He warned that Israel’s expanded operations in Gaza City could claim hundreds of thousands of civilian lives, and would require the evacuation of the entire city.

"Where are these people supposed to go?" Merz said. "We can't do that, we won't do that, and I will not do that."

Nevertheless, the principles of Germany's Israel policy remain unchanged, the chancellor said.

Germany first announced its decision to stop weapons exports to Israel on Friday.

The country is Israel’s second-largest weapons supplier after the US.

Germany supplied a third of the Israeli regime’s arms imports between 2020 and 2024, second only to weapons sales from the United States, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The suspension allows for the potential continuation of exports for systems not connected to Israel’s genocidal Gaza wars, including anti-air missile systems and naval equipment.

Spain and Slovenia have already taken a similar step. The chancellor’s remarks came as anti-Israeli sentiments are growing in Germany.

A new poll reveals that most German citizens now support recognition of a Palestinian state.

According to a survey by the Forsa Institute, 54 percent of Germans favor recognition, while only 31 percent oppose it.

Israel’s war, which began in October 2023, has killed at least 61,430 Palestinians and injured more than 153,213.

Israel stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, after baselessly claiming that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas is “diverting aid” to justify its weaponization of food against its 2.3 million civilians.

Severe restrictions on food and aid have left the territory facing a worsening starvation crisis, with nearly 217 people— including 100 children—dying of malnutrition in recent months.

Under the shadow of the genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has accelerated its annexation drive in the West Bank. The occupied West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.

The Israeli military has intensified daily raids and mass arrests, notably in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, where Israeli bulldozers have razed entire residential areas, expelling at least 40,000 people.

Approximately 770,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, across 180 settlements and 256 outposts – including 138 classified as agricultural or pastoral, according to Palestinian reports.