PM Netanyahu's Statement after his Meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Israel - Prime Minister's Office
The 37th Government
17.03.2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and issued the following statement after their meeting:
"Chancellor Scholz, welcome to you and your delegation. This is the third visit that you are taking as chancellor to Israel, the second visit during the war. We very much appreciate your friendship, the support that Germany has given Israel during these trying times.
We've just had a very serious conversation, an important conversation among friends. You expressed your concern for two things. One, protecting civilians, and second, provision of humanitarian aid. I explained that these are our concerns as well because we agree with both goals. In fact, the army of Israel has done more to minimize civilian casualties than any other army in modern times, and certainly any other army faced with such dense urban warfare and an enemy that seeks to use civilians as human shields, as Hamas does, often at gunpoint.
Secondly, we are doing unusual efforts to increase humanitarian aid by land, by sea, by air, and we'll continue to do more. The main problem that we see is the distribution of this aid once it gets into Gaza, and the fact that it is being looted by Hamas and by others. This is something that we have to have a joint effort to try to prevent. The responsibility for this disruption and for the civilian casualties should be laid at Hamas's door. Israel will do whatever it can to minimize those casualties and maximize humanitarian aid as needed.
We also agree that Hamas has to be eliminated. We cannot have a future for Gaza, a future for peace, a future for Israel if Hamas, a terrorist organization committed to our genocide, remains intact. If it remains intact, it will regroup and reconquer the Gaza Strip and, as they vowed, repeat the massacre again and again and again.
On Thursday, I met families of hostages. One of the hostages, a woman, told me that her captors, she was there with her children, and we got her out. She said the Hamas captor who held her hostage said to her: You know, you're going back now. I suggest you go. Go anywhere, go to California, leave Israel because we will do next time ten times what we did to you now. And after that, even more.
So, we cannot have this genocidal organization that murdered over a thousand Israelis, we cannot have them in power. We cannot have peace if Hamas is there. Hamas has to be eliminated for any possibility of peace and progress.
When we talked briefly also about the day after Hamas, the one thing that I would stress is it's got to be the day after Hamas, after Hamas is eliminated. That will open up other possibilities but none can be realized unless Hamas is eliminated."
Prime Minister Netanyahu added:
"I trust you know that Israel seeks peace, and Israelis believe, all Israelis pray and yearn for peace because we suffer the consequences of war, both as a nation and as families who lost loved ones.
The cost of war is well-known to us. We believe that the key to peace is security. Many believe that the key to security is peace. But peace is unsustainable without a strong Israel. And if we are offered a peace agreement or a path to peace that makes Israel so weak and unable to defend itself, and our neighbors still adhering to the goal of destroying the Jewish state then obviously we will set peace backward and not forward.
We want to move peace forward. For that, Israel has to have the necessary security responsibility in this tiny area. Otherwise, the radicals take over. This is something that we've discussed in detail. We'll have other opportunities.
I want to assure you that we value the support that Germany has given us in international forums and elsewhere. We value your friendship and we look forward to continuing this conversation.
The other thing that I would say is that I assured Chancellor Scholz that our goal in eliminating the remaining terrorist battalions in Rafah goes hand in hand with enabling the civilian population to leave Rafah. It's not something that we will do while keeping the population locked in place. In fact, we'll do the very opposite. We'll enable them to leave because our consideration for reducing and minimizing civilian casualties has guided us, and will continue to guide us in the future.
Thank you, Chancellor and thank you all."
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