German politician resigns over swastika on ballot – DW – 07/25/2025
The deputy speaker of the parliament in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg resigned on Friday after admitting he had drawn a swastika on a ballot paper next to the name of a far-right AfD lawmaker.
Center-left Social Democrat politician Daniel Born made the transgression during a vote involving two Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmakers.
In a statement, the Born said he had made a "serious mistake" and a "momentary lapse."
The incident happened during Thursday's election of deputy members to the cross-border Upper Rhine Council, a consultative body.
Two AfD lawmakers were on the ballot. A swastika was found on one of the ballots next to the name of AfD candidate Bernhard Eisenhut.
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Middle East updates: Germany says Gaza aid 'insufficient' – DW – 08/02/2025
The German government said it has taken note of "limited initial progress" in aid entering Gaza but said the amount was "very insufficient" to meet the needs of people there. DW has the latest. Germany airdrops more humanitarian aid into Gaza, with the German government also saying more needed to be done to improve the situation in the territory. Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff told families of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas that he would secure a deal to make sure their loved ones Bundeswehr armed forces delivered about 9.6 tons of aid into Gaza on Saturday, according to the DPA news agency. An A400M military transport aircraft dropped 22 pallets of humanitarian aid containing food and medical supplies into Gaza, the report said. The Israeli military said countries like France, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates delivered about 90 pallets of aid into Gaza on Saturday. A United Nations-affiliated organization that tracks food security worldwide issued a dire warning earlier this week about the hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip. It confirmed that, based on data up to July 25, a "worse-case" famine scenario, was unfolding across Gaza. Israeli authorities control the only three border crossings at the Strip and cut off all supplies to Gaza at the beginning of March. Israeli authorities then reopened some aid centers in May, but with restrictions they said were designed to stop goods from being stolen by Hamas militants. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, Germany, the EU and others. Malnutrition-related deaths spiked in Gaza in July, according to the World Health Organization. Airdrops have been sharply criticized by some humanitarian groups as expensive, inefficient and dangerous. US envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday visited Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and vowed to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. "We will get your children home and hold Hamas responsible for any bad acts on their part," Witkoff told families of Israeli hostages who had gathered at the square to stage a protest to call upon the Israeli government to secure a deal to release their loved ones from captivity. Witkoff was cited as saying so, according to a statement by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. He added, "We will do what's right for the Gazan people." Protesters had gathered at the square after a video of an Israeli hostage in Gaza was released by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Thursday. Hamas then released a video of Evyatar David, another Israeli hostage, on Friday. The video showed David in a visibly fragile state. It is unclear when those videos were filmed. Witkoff on Friday also visited an aid distribution site in southern Gaza run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The foundation has been widely criticized for failing to improve conditions in the besieged enclave. The amount of aid entering Gaza remains "very insufficient" despite limited improvement, the German government said on Saturday, after ministers discussed ways to heighten pressure on Israel. Germany "notes limited initial progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of the Gaza Strip, which, however, remains very insufficient to alleviate the emergency situation," government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in a statement. "Israel remains obligated to ensure the full delivery of aid," Kornelius added. German ministers had gathered on Saturday, following German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul's trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories on Thursday and Friday. Wadephul had called upon Israeli authorities to ensure safe access for United Nations agencies to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, saying the current restrictions were worsening the crisis. "The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza must end now," Wadephul had said, stressing that aid distribution through the UN had long worked effectively and needed to resume without obstacles. Good evening and welcome to weekend edition of the Middle East blog. We're tracking the news about Germany having delivered more aid into Gaza, as well as US envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to the region. Witkoff has met with families of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas and vowed to secure a deal to bring their loved ones home. But some families were disappointed and said they have would have liked to hear more about practical ways to secure that deal. Follow along for news, analysis, and explainers on the situation in Gaza, Israel, and the wider Middle East, on the weekend of August 2 and August 3.
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German government takes tougher tone with Israel – DW – 08/02/2025
Germany's foreign minister visited Jerusalem on Friday and insisted that more aid be let into Gaza. Despite the tough talk, experts say it's unlikely there will be any consequences if Israel doesn't do as Germany asks. After his talks with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and representatives from the United Nations in Jerusalem, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul tried to put more pressure on the Israeli government. On Friday he made an urgent appeal to the Israelis: The government should immediately allow the UN to help the hungry people in Gaza. "That is why we call on Israel to allow the UN to transport and distribute the aid safely," Wadephul said, while in Jerusalem. "This was also part of my discussion with the Israeli government yesterday. The humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip must be ended now, with the help of the efficient, established UN system." The day before Wadephul had described the situation in Gaza in dramatic tones. The death and suffering there was "unimaginable," he said. Wadephul also appealed to the militant group Hamas, asking them to stop fighting and to return all the hostages they still held. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany, the US, Israel and other countries. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar didn't publicly express an opinion on Germany's suggestions. But Wadephul told reporters he thought Germany's message had been understood. Saar did reject accusations from his colleague in the Israeli government, the far-right extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's minister of national security. On social media platform X, Ben-Gvir said that 80 years after the Holocaust, Germany was once again supporting Nazis. Before he left Germany, Wadephul had warned that Israel was becoming increasingly isolated internationally. He also said Berlin would respond to any unilateral actions by Israel and was critical of potential Israeli plans to annex the occupied West Bank. Israel's Saar answered Ben-Gvir on social media too. "I strongly reject Minister Ben-Gvir's statements about Germany. They are unnecessary and harmful. Germany is a friendly country and Foreign Minister Wadephul is a friend of Israel. This does not change, even when there are differences of opinion between us." Germany is still pushing for a two-state solution to the intractable problems in the Middle East. Wadephul confirmed the right of the Palestinians to their own state after he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday. However Netanyahu's government has rejected that idea in the recent past. Even as Germany criticizes the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Israel's foreign minister sees the settlements as justified. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had sent Wadephul to Israel after a meeting of the country's so-called security cabinet. This group includes the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, interior and finance, as well as various intelligence services. Wadephul's mission was to make it clear that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza must be resolved and he was also to assess whether and how the Israeli government could be convinced to do this. Over this weekend, he is to report back to the Chancellor and the security cabinet. The results of this are hard to predict. Whether the German government would use sanctions against Israel, stop weapons deliveries or recognize a Palestinian state is unclear. However observers in Berlin says it's unlikely any concrete steps will be taken, because of Germany's special responsibility towards Israel, after committing the Holocaust. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Criticism is likely but sanctions won't happen, says Martin Huber, the secretary general of the conservative, Bavaria-based Christian Social Union, or CSU. Even so, the tone German politicians are using is becoming sharper, as more and more pictures of starving children in Gaza emerge. The leader of the Social Democrats' parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese, told local journalists that the time for talk has passed. "We need political pressure and concrete progress," he said. The Social Democrats are part of Germany's governing coalition together with the CSU and the Christian Democratic Union, or CDU. Up until now the German government has been holding back, Andreas Reinicke, the director of the German Orient-Institute, told public radio Deutschlandfunk. But that's for good reasons, he argued, in reference to the Holocaust. However if the world now really wants a two-state solution, "then we will have to do this not only verbally, but also with an active process," Reinicke said. "I believe Germany's influence [on Israel] is greater than is commonly assumed." Meanwhile the Israeli government disputes that locals in Gaza are going hungry and insists that the siltation is actually better than depicted in the international press. Foreign Minister Saar accused media of showing misleading pictures of hungry children. "This is what a modern blood libel looks like," he wrote on social media platform X, referring to a-now-well-known picture of Osama al-Raqab, an emaciated 5-year-old. Al-Raqab has cystic fibrosis and was evacuated to Italy in June, Saar pointed out. The Israeli government's position on the issue is in opposition to what international aid agencies have observed and eyewitnesses have reported. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Wadephul also said that the thesis often insisted upon by the Israeli government — that Hamas will benefit from any aid shipments they allow in — is no longer justified. It could well be that Hamas previously diverted some of the shipments, he said. "But the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip is now so great that it is not justified to put up further hurdles here," Wadephul insisted. Another contentious point: While the German foreign minister and others argue that the UN and the World Food Program should be taking care of supplies into Gaza, Israel and its main ally, the US, insist the newly created and increasingly controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF should be. On Friday, Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, demonstratively visited a GHF aid distribution site near Rafah, in Gaza. The US ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, claims the GHF has given out 100 million meals in two months. However the UN and other aid organizations say the GHF is not working properly. During past weeks, there have been reports of hundreds of people killed or wounded while trying to get aid from the GHF. On Friday, the German air force began to help, dropping palettes of aid into the Gaza Strip, flying out of Jordan. However even Germany's foreign minister considers this more a symbolic than anything particularly helpful. The crucial thing now is to send hundreds of trucks carrying food into the Gaza Strip daily, Wadephul said while in view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Local Germany
6 hours ago
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Germany says 'very insufficient' aid entering Gaza
The criticism came after Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited the region on Thursday and Friday and the German military staged its first food airdrops into Gaza, where aid agencies say that more than two million Palestinians are facing starvation. Germany "notes limited initial progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of the Gaza Strip, which, however, remains very insufficient to alleviate the emergency situation," government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in a statement. "Israel remains obligated to ensure the full delivery of aid," Kornelius added. READ ALSO: Spain air-drops 12 tonnes of food aid over Gaza Facing mounting international criticism over its military operations in Gaza, Israel has allowed more trucks to cross the border and some foreign nations to carry out airdrops of food and medicines. International agencies say the amount of aid entering Gaza is still dangerously low, however. The United Nations has said that 6,000 trucks are awaiting permission from Israel to enter the occupied Palestinian territory. The German government, traditionally a strong supporter of Israel, also expressed "concern regarding reports that large quantities of humanitarian aid are being withheld by Hamas and criminal organisations". Israel has alleged that much of the aid arriving in the territory is being siphoned off by Hamas, which runs Gaza. The Israeli army is accused of having equipped Palestinian criminal networks in its fight against Hamas and of allowing them to plunder aid deliveries. "The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces," Jonathan Whittall of OCHA, the United Nations agency for coordinating humanitarian affairs, told reporters in May. Advertisement A German government source told AFP it had noted that Israel has "considerably" increased the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza to about 220 a day. Berlin has taken a tougher line against Israel's actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in recent weeks. The source said that a German security cabinet meeting on Saturday discussed "the different options" for putting pressure on Israel, but no decision was taken. A partial suspension of arms deliveries to Israel is one option that has been raised. Hamas militants launched an attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's military offensive on Gaza since then has killed at least 60,249 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. The UN considers the ministry's figures reliable.
