The Social Democratic Party (SPD) has issued sharp criticism of a likely visit by Federal President of the Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), to the portion of the Gaza Strip occupied by Israel.
Adis Ahmetović, the SPD’s foreign‑policy spokesman in the Bundestag, told the FAZ that a trip accompanied by the Israeli army would signal a “blatant statement”. He described Gaza as “largely devastated, with over a million people displaced; expert estimates put the death toll above 100,000, over 80 % of whom were civilians, and hundreds of thousands are starving”. Ahmetović also criticized the itinerary for lacking any meeting with an official Palestinian representative, adding that such a meeting would be “only appropriate”.
Opposing views came from Jürgen Hardt, the foreign‑policy spokesman of the Union faction in the Bundestag. Hardt said that Klöckner’s decision “to go to Gaza stems from her concern for the suffering there”. He emphasized that Klöckner would not travel into the Hamas‑controlled part of the coastal strip, so the visit would be restricted for safety reasons to the area under Israeli control. Hardt noted that she would deliberately meet representatives of international non‑governmental organizations, even though Israel has recently enacted measures that will make or prevent NGO work in Gaza increasingly difficult.