According to the federal government, there are a “single-digit number” of Germans killed as a result of Hamas terror in Israel. There are also German citizens among the hostages in the Gaza Strip. Scholz called for their release “without conditions.”
According to the federal government, several Germans were killed in the terrorist attack on Israel by the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas. The government is assuming a single-digit number of German citizens “who have fallen victim to Hamas terror,” said a spokesman for the Foreign Office. The spokesman did not give any details.
The Foreign Office is in close contact with the Israeli authorities, he added. The federal government only confirms deaths once relatives have been notified.
Relatives of German Hamas hostages at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
German hostages in the Gaza Strip
For the time being, the Foreign Office will not comment in detail on the Germans abducted to the Gaza Strip. The spokesman referred to a special staff set up in the Foreign Office for abducted German citizens. “We are of course now using all communication channels (…) to influence actors in the region and ultimately, indirectly, Hamas,” he said.
According to Israeli information, the radical Islamic group Hamas kidnapped almost 200 people, including numerous foreigners, during its major attack on Israel on October 7th. The Foreign Office speaks of a total of eight cases, although a case can also include several family members. Those affected usually have dual citizenship.
During his visit to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also met with relatives of the hostages and assured them that he would work to free them. “We are doing everything we can to achieve their release,” Scholz reiterated today in Cairo. He emphasized that such a release must happen “without conditions.”
More than 3,000 Germans flown out
The spokesman added that the German Foreign Ministry’s crisis preparedness list still contains a low three-digit number of people with German citizenship who are in the sealed-off Gaza Strip. We are in close contact with them and continually inform them about the current situation. We are also in constant communication with partners in the region in order to enable those people who want to leave the country.
At the end of last week, the Foreign Office had already supported around 2,800 German citizens and family members to leave Israel, some of whom had returned on special Lufthansa flights. The Bundeswehr also flew almost 300 people to Germany.
Dead Americans, French and British
Other countries also have to complain about dead citizens as a result of Hamas terror. The number of Americans who died in the terrorist attack on Israel rises to 31, according to US Presidential Office spokesman John Kirby. According to the French government, 24 French people died. The British government said the number of its citizens killed so far was at least seven. Nine people are missing.