Merz on Hamas atrocity video: “I am appalled”

Berlin. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) expressed outrage over propaganda videos by the Islamist Hamas in which Israeli hostages are paraded. "I am appalled by the images of Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski. Hamas is torturing the hostages, terrorizing Israel, and using its own population in the Gaza Strip as a human shield," Merz told Bild. "Precisely for this reason, there is no way around a negotiated ceasefire for the time being. The release of all hostages is an essential prerequisite for this."

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Merz added: “Israel will not reciprocate Hamas’ cynicism and must continue to provide humanitarian aid.”

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Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU), who returned on Friday from a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, also expressed shock. These "showed the full depravity of their tormentors," Wadephul told Bild.

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French President Emmanuel Macron had previously expressed his anger: "Abhorrent cruelty, boundless inhumanity: this is what Hamas embodies," he wrote on X. The solution is "that of the two states of Israel and Palestine living peacefully side by side."

In a Hamas propaganda video released over the weekend, a 24-year-old hostage, emaciated to the bone, is seen in a narrow tunnel in Gaza, allegedly digging his own grave. Hamas and other Islamist organizations in the Gaza Strip had previously released similar videos of hostages.

RND/dpa