Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Friday, March 15, 2024

Germany’s Scholz to make second trip to Israel since Oct. 7

By AP 15 March 2024, 2:17 pm Edit
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, Pool)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, Pool)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is making his second trip to the Middle East since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. He plans meetings with the leaders of Jordan and Israel.

Spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit says Scholz will depart Saturday for Jordan, where he will meet King Abdullah II. He plans to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in Israel on Sunday.

Germany is a staunch ally of Israel and has repeatedly expressed its solidarity with the country in its war against Hamas. But it has pressed for better aid supplies and for an eventual two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Berlin plans to have its air force participate in Jordanian-initiated airdrops of aid to Gaza. But Hebestreit stressed on Friday that deliveries by sea or air are “at best a second-best solution” and aid should be sent to Gaza overland, as well as renewing calls for Hamas to free Israeli hostages.

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