Statement by President von der Leyen with President Metsola and Israeli President Herzog

Thank you very much for receiving us here. And indeed, we are friends of Israel. And when a friend is under attack, we have to stand together. We stand by you. It was very important for us to come here today. Thank you very much for hosting us here.

This morning, we have been in the kibbutz Kfar Azza. There are no words to describe what we have seen. The suffering of the people. The atrocious attacks from Hamas. These are acts of war. Therefore, Israel has the right to defend itself. And Israel even has the duty to defend and protect its people.

I fully subscribe to your call on Hamas to release all hostages immediately and to refrain completely from taking civilians as shields, which is what Hamas is constantly doing. Indeed, Hamas is a threat not only to Israel, but Hamas is also a threat to the Palestinian people. Therefore, again, our call, very loud and clear, is to release the hostages and stop taking people as human shields.

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