While the world has strongly condemned the Israeli bombing of a school in Gaza where Palestinians were taking shelter, Germany has come out in Tel Aviv's defence, repeating the same old argument: the Zionist state has a right to defend itself.
Even the European Union has criticised Israel for the Saturday attack in which nearly 100 people were killed.
"Israel has the right to defend itself. The reality is that Hamas uses schools, hospitals, kindergartens as command centres and that the people in Gaza are also abused against their will as protective (human) shields," government deputy spokesperson Wolfgang Buechner told the press in Berlin on Monday, echoing Israel's claims after each such attack.
Buechner, however, provided no evidence to back up his allegations against Hamas, which are consistent with Israeli talking points used to justify lethal attacks on civilians in Gaza.
"That is also a sad reality in this situation and I think you have to be very careful about sitting on one-sided reports that are distributed by Hamas and believing everything that is spread by this side," he said.
However, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a nonprofit organisation headquartered in Switzerland, refuted Israeli claims that it targeted Hamas fighters with its strike at the Gaza school.
The Euro-Med said on Sunday that a list provided by the Israeli army of alleged targets at Tabaeen School in Gaza City included individuals who had already been killed in previous Israeli attacks.
"Following the initial review, it was discovered that three of the 19 names listed by the Israeli army as 'terrorists who were eliminated' in the Tabaeen School massacre had already been killed in earlier Israeli bombing attacks," it said.
They included "Ahmed Ihab al-Jaabari, who was killed on 5 December 2023, Youssef al-Wadiyya, who was targeted by the Israeli military two days prior to the massacre, and Montaser Daher, who was killed on Friday in a residential flat with his sister, one day prior to the massacre".
According to the rights organisation, "three elderly civilians who had no connection to the military action were also among the victims, including a school principal, Abdul Aziz Misbah Al-Kafarna, the deputy mayor of Beit Hanoun, and an academic and Arabic language teacher, Yousef Kahlout; and six civilians, some of whom were even Hamas opponents".
Buechner's controversial remarks also stood in stark contrast to statements made by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who strongly condemned the attack on Saturday that killed at least 100 Palestinians as an Israeli aircraft targeted Palestinians performing pre-dawn or Fajr prayers at the Tabaeen School in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood.
"Horrified by images from a sheltering school in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike, w/ reportedly dozens of Palestinian victims," Borrell wrote on X.
He emphasised that there is no justification for such massacres, particularly those targeting educational institutions that are meant to serve as shelters for civilians.
He drew attention to the alarming number of casualties since the conflict began in early October, with reports indicating nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.
