Germany: Two-State Solution Key to Palestinian-Israeli Peace

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (L) meets with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi on June 9, 2019 in Amman. (AFP)
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (L) meets with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi on June 9, 2019 in Amman. (AFP)
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Germany: Two-State Solution Key to Palestinian-Israeli Peace

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (L) meets with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi on June 9, 2019 in Amman. (AFP)
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (L) meets with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi on June 9, 2019 in Amman. (AFP)

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Sunday reaffirmed his country's support for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ahead of a long-awaited US peace plan.

"We are still in agreement that reaching a two-state solution through negotiations is the only solution," he told a press conference in Amman with his Jordanian counterpart.

"We and Germany agree that the two-state solution is the only way to end the conflict," Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.

Washington is gearing up to roll out economic aspects of its plan at a conference in Bahrain later this month, but it is not yet clear when its political details will be unveiled.

The Palestinians have already rejected the deal, citing a string of moves by US President Donald Trump they say show his administration is irredeemably biased.

Maas and Safadi met a day after US ambassador to Israel David Friedman was quoted by the New York Times as saying Israel had the "right" to annex at least parts of the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian leaders said the US envoy's comments showed "extremists" were involved in White House policy on the issue.

Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War and its construction of settlements there is viewed as a major stumbling block to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.

Friedman has in the past been a supporter of Israeli settlements as has the family of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser leading efforts to put together the peace deal.

Kushner has hinted that it will not endorse international calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Several UN resolutions have enshrined the two-state solution, which envisages separate homelands for Jews and Palestinians, as the path to a peace settlement.

Both ministers also stressed the importance of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, just weeks after the US called for it to be dismantled after cutting its roughly $300 million annual donation.

Jordan is home to nearly 2.2 million Palestinian refugees, who make up almost half of the kingdom's population.



Israeli Fire Kills 41 People in Gaza

Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Israeli Fire Kills 41 People in Gaza

Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Gaza's civil defense agency reported 41 people killed in Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory Saturday, more than half of whom it said were killed while waiting for aid.

"Forty-one people were martyred due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, 23 of whom were waiting for aid," Mohammad al-Mughayyir, an official from the agency, told AFP.

The Israeli military did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

Israeli restrictions on media in Gaza and the difficulties of access on the ground mean AFP is unable to independently verify the casualty tolls provided by the civil defense agency.

Central Gaza's Al-Awda hospital received eight bodies and 125 wounded after Israeli drone strikes targeted people gathering near an aid distribution center near the Netzarim corridor, Mughayyir said.

Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital received 11 bodies after an attack on people seeking aid on Saturday, he added, while four others were taken to the Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza and Nasser hospital in the south.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution points since the US- and Israel-backed organization began operating in late May, according to the civil defense agency.

An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operating on May 26 after Israel cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking international condemnation and warnings of imminent famine.

Mughayyir said that 18 people were killed in the north and south of the territory during various attacks by the Israeli army, including seven in Gaza City.

The Gaza Strip has been ravaged by more than 20 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, with the situation continuing to deteriorate on the ground.

Nasser Hospital, one of the last partly functioning health facilities, has been targeted by Israeli strikes in recent days, according to medical sources who spoke to AFP.

AFP journalists on the ground reported that internet and fixed line communications were down in Gaza for the third consecutive day.

The Palestinian Authority's telecommunications ministry said Thursday that Israeli forces targeted a fiber optic cable, triggering the outage.