Situation in Middle East not about taking sides: German Foreign Minister

Mainz, Germany, May 24 (IANS/DPA) Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has stated that it is not about taking sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.

Baerbock said at an election campaign event on Thursday evening that she was doing everything she could to ensure that humanitarian aid reached Gaza, in a situation where Hamas had attacked Israel.

"That is not a contradiction for me," she said.

According to Baerbock, a child in Gaza whose mother had died suffered just as much as a child whose mother had been abducted to Gaza by Hamas.

"I don't have to decide whether I have more sympathy for one child or the other," she added.

Baerbock emphasised that human dignity must be regarded as inviolable.

According to Baerbock, Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlander, who was also present at the celebration of 75 years of Germany's Basic Law in Berlin on Thursday, put it in a nutshell by saying there was no Jewish blood, no Muslim blood and no Christian blood.

"There is only human blood," Baerbock said.

Around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage in the Gaza Strip during the Hamas attacks in the Israeli border area on October 7.

The terrorist attack was the trigger for Israel's military offensive in Gaza, in which, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 35,500 people have been killed so far.