Germany offers Israel military help, promises to crack down support for Hamas at home 

Germany has offered military assistance to Israel and promised to take measures against support for Hamas within its borders. Chancellor Olaf Scholz underlined Germany’s historical responsibility for Israel’s security on Thursday. The Defence Ministry has approved an Israeli request to utilize a maximum of two out of the five Heron TP combat drones currently leased by the German military, which were already in Israel for the training of German personnel. Additionally, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced in Brussels that Israel has requested ammunition for its warships, a request that will now be discussed. The statement came in response to the recent attack by the terrorist group Hamas group on Israel. Israel has vowed an unprecedented offensive against the Islamic militant group Hamas ruling Gaza after its fighters broke through the border fence and stormed into the country’s south through air, land and sea on October 7. On the sixth day, the Israeli military said more than 1,200 people, including 189 soldiers, were killed in Israel, a staggering toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria that lasted weeks. In Gaza, at least 1,200 people have been killed, according to authorities there. Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007. Scholz told the German parliament that he has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform Germany of any needs, “for example the treatment of wounded.” “At this moment, there is only one place for Germany — the place at Israel’s side,” he told lawmakers. “Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state of Israel.” Scholz noted that thousands of people have demonstrated in support of Israel in recent days, but said that “there were also other, shameful pictures from Germany last weekend.” On Saturday, a small group handed out pastries in a Berlin street and dozens of people later demonstrated in celebration of the Hamas attack. Scholz said that Germany will issue a formal ban on activity by or in support of Hamas, which is already listed by the European Union as a terror group. He said groups such as Samidoun, which was behind the weekend pastry action, will be banned. Scholz said there will be “zero tolerance for antisemitism.” The chancellor also questioned the lack of a clear condemnation of the Hamas attack by the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying that “their silence is shameful.” Germany has suspended development aid for the Palestinian areas, though it is keeping up humanitarian help. Scholz also assailed Iran’s role in the region. “We have no tangible evidence that Iran gave concrete and operative support to this cowardly attack by Hamas,” he said. “But is clear to us all that, without Iranian support in recent years, Hamas would not have been capable of these unprecedented attacks on Israeli territory.”