BERLIN — The German government on Friday expressed “concern” over Israeli plans to expand control in Gaza, saying it would complicate humanitarian aid efforts for Palestinians living in the war-ravaged territory. “We view these announcements and the reports about them with concern, and if this were to happen, it would complicate our efforts—particularly the provision of further vital humanitarian aid, especially for the population,” Germany’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kathrin Deschauer told journalists in Berlin. Deschauer also said Germany opposes any permanent division of the Palestinian territory. “You also know that it is the position of the federal government and the foreign minister that a division of Gaza cannot be permanent and must not be cemented. And these announcements, which we have now heard about through reports, if they were to materialize, would also not be in line with what we as the federal government strongly support: the 20-point plan and the resulting prospect of peace,” she added. Deschauer also called on “the parties to the conflict to adhere to this 20-point plan.” Palestinians view Israel’s widening Gaza buffer zone as a part of a strategy to permanently displace them, pointing to remarks from senior ministers, including defense chief Israel Katz, saying they want to encourage “voluntary migration” from Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had directed Israel’s military to take more of Gaza, initially by seizing 70 percent of the Palestinian territory, where the population is already penned into a tiny strip of land along the coast. Three Palestinians were killed on Friday afternoon after an Israeli drone targeted a gathering of civilians at Al-Shawa Square in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Netanyahu’s directive comes as Israel escalates its attacks in Gaza, which it says target senior Hamas leaders who were involved in the 2023 attacks. On Tuesday, Israel killed Hamas’ armed wing chief, 10 days after killing his predecessor. Gaza health officials say an additional strike on Wednesday night that Israel said targeted two Hamas leaders had killed at least 10 people, including five children, and wounded 18 others. Three Palestinians were killed, and others were injured on Friday afternoon in an Israeli airstrike east of Gaza City. Medical sources said that they were killed after an Israeli drone targeted a gathering of civilians at Al-Shawa Square in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Israel effectively controls an estimated 64 percent of the tiny coastal Strip, bombarded to ruins by Israel’s two-year military assault that followed the 2023 attack on southern Israel. Under an October US-brokered truce that has failed to halt Israeli attacks or secure Hamas’ disarmament, Israeli troops were meant to withdraw to a “Yellow Line” demarcating the extent of their control. Marked on military maps, that line put Israel in control of some 53 percent of Gaza, with Hamas ruling the rest. Israel has unilaterally moved the concrete blocks marking the Yellow Line on the ground deeper into Hamas-controlled territory, Reuters reported. Maps issued by the military in March showed an even larger restricted area that analysts say cordons off around 64 percent of Gaza’s territory. Netanyahu has repeatedly said in public remarks that the military controls more than 60 percent of Gaza. Speaking to a conference in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli leader said even more of Gaza would be taken.
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