Image: (APA/AFP/JACK GUEZ)
“We are leaving no stone unturned. This is an Austrian family man,” emphasized Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) on Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where he met Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.
- Also read: Son of Austrian Hamas hostage wrote touching letter to Pope
They are also maintaining contact with Egypt and Israel on the matter. “We don’t know where she (the hostage, note) is. We never got any indication that he shouldn’t be alive,” said Schallenberg, referring to the Austrian, who was killed on October 7, 2023 in the wake of the Hamas massacre in Israel was kidnapped. According to current information, the hostage is the Israeli-Austrian dual citizen Tal Shoham. He was kidnapped with his wife and several children. Unlike him, the other family members, some of whom also have German citizenship, were released.
130 hostages still held by Hamas
Qatar is a mediator in efforts to establish a ceasefire in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas. During the ceasefire, hostages will be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners for the second time since the start of the war. Thani also met Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog in Munich. 130 hostages are said to still be held by Hamas.
Schallenberg praised the efforts of Thani, who has been “strongly behind” the release of hostages for months. “We want two things,” said Schallenberg, “humanitarian aid should go in (into the Gaza Strip, note), the hostages should go out.” A ceasefire is the “logistical-logical prerequisite” for this.
- Article on the topic: Israel frees 2 hostages – Hamas reports many deaths in Rafah
According to Schallenberg, there is “great fear” among participants at the Munich Security Conference of a major Israeli offensive in the south of the Gaza Strip. “Israel must make it clearer that they differentiate between the (Palestinian) civilian population and the Hamas terrorists,” demanded the Foreign Minister. “This all too often becomes blurred,” he said, adding: “despite all understanding of Israel’s right to self-defense.” No state – not even Israel – is above international law.
On October 7, 2023, Israel lost the “nimbus of inviolability” that it had possessed since the Yom Kippur War exactly 50 years earlier. However, one should not “outweigh one trauma with another trauma, one injustice with another injustice.”
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Source: Nachrichten
