German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered a wide-ranging government statement on Tuesday in which he said the country's "reason of state" is to defend Israel's existence, condemned Russia's attacks in Ukraine, and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Addressing lawmakers in the Bundestag ahead of the NATO summit at The Hague, Merz said "we must never get used to the horrors of war", before going on to speak about Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and the Israel-Iran conflict.
