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German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has not ruled out the possibility that the European Union could impose new sanctions on Israel following Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s call for targeting 30-40 civilians in Gaza each day, Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft reported.
“The European Union has already imposed sanctions against Israeli settlement organizations. We support those,” said Wadephul.
Ben-Gvir made the controversial statements in a podcast.
“I think targeted killings should be carried out in Gaza, remove 30, 40 [people] every night,” said Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, in a podcast episode released last Saturday.
“Not just those who pose an immediate threat. No, there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”
The comments drew a sharp response from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives.
“Ben-Gvir’s inhumane remarks can only be condemned,” Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesperson for the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union parliamentary group, told POLITICO. “The EU should sanction him as a sign of the universal validity of human dignity and human rights.”
Hardt went further, saying he was convinced an Israeli government without Ben-Gvir or fellow far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich would bring Europe and Israel closer together.
Germany’s Social Democrats struck a similar tone. Adis Ahmetović, the party’s foreign policy spokesperson, said the two ministers had shocked international opinion well before their latest statements, and urged the German government to support sanctions against both.