Germany and Israel argued heatedly over images from the Gaza Strip during their meeting in Jerusalem earlier this week, with Germany’s foreign minister saying the images did not reflect the reality of famine in the enclave, Israeli media reported Friday.
According to the Israeli 13 channelPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently wanted to use the images to argue that conditions in the embattled Gaza Strip were not so bad. Anadolu Agency reports.
But German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock objected to this, pointing to widespread reports of famine in the Gaza Strip and offering to show Netanyahu photographs of starving children on her mobile phone, the TV channel reported.
Netanyahu urged Berbock to look at photographs of markets and people on Gaza’s beach, saying there were no cases of famine there, the report said.
According to the report, Burbock asked him not to show the photographs because they did not convey the reality of life in the Gaza Strip.
READ: Nearly two out of three houses in the Gaza Strip destroyed, UNICEF says
Netanyahu is said to have loudly responded that the photographs are real and that Israel is not showing a fictional reality, saying: “We are not like Nazis.” The Nazis were known for making films showing staged scenes of Jewish life in artificially favorable conditions.
Burbock reportedly then asked Netanyahu if he wanted to say that doctors in the Gaza Strip and the international media were not reporting the truth as there had been widespread reports of widespread famine-like conditions.
But Burbock on Friday angrily disputed reports of a falling out between her and Netanyahu.
“German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert was in contact with the Prime Minister’s Office and explained what we think about such distorting publications,” Baerbock said after the G7 meeting in Italy.
She told a reporter: “We don’t cover confidential conversations. My office and the German Ambassador to Israel have already commented on this.”
Seibert wrote on X that “key points in this report of the hour-long meeting between Foreign Minister Baerbock and Prime Minister Netanyahu are incorrect and misleading.”
READ: UNRWA chief warns man-made famine is tightening control over Gaza Strip
