BERLIN — Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip on Monday in unusually strong terms for a German leader.

“Frankly speaking, I no longer understand what the goal of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip is,” Merz said in an interview aired on public television. “To harm the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism.”

Germany is one of Israel’s closest European backers, and the country’s leaders, due to the Nazi past, consider Israel’s security to be a Staatsräson, or “reason of state.” German leaders, particularly Merz’s conservatives, have been reluctant to openly criticize Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

But Merz’s comments suggest his government’s position may have shifted amid Israel’s new military offensive in the Gaza Strip, with many Gazans at risk of starvation in the aftermath of an 11-week aid blockade, according to humanitarian groups.

“Germany must exercise greater restraint than any other country in the world in giving public advice to Israel,” Merz said. “But when borders are crossed, when international humanitarian law is really being violated, the German chancellor must also say something about it.”

Merz suggested he will discuss Israel’s renewed offensive in a scheduled call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this week. “We have a great interest in remaining at Israel’s side,” Merz added. “But the Israeli government must not do anything that its best friends are no longer prepared to accept.”

Merz’s comments come as debate grows in Germany over the government’s military backing for Israel. Some lawmakers from the center-left Social Democratic Party — Merz’s junior coalition partner — are calling for an end to the country’s weapons exports to Israel. “German weapons must not be used to spread humanitarian catastrophes and to violate international law,” Adis Ahmetovic, foreign policy spokesperson for the SPD group in the Bundestag, said in an interview with German magazine Stern. 

The German government’s commissioner for combatting antisemitism, Felix Klein, also sparked a debate in Germany in calling for a “more honest discussion” of how Germans interpret their Staatsräson with regard to Israel.

“We must do everything in our power to preserve the security of Israel and Jews worldwide,” Klein said in an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily paper. “But we must also be clear that this is no justification for everything. Starving the Palestinians and deliberately making the humanitarian situation dramatically worse has nothing to do with safeguarding Israel’s right to exist. And it cannot be the German reason of state either.”

Germany has until now refrained from participating in the sharpest criticism of Israel among European leaders.

Earlier this month, the British, French and Canadian heads of government in a joint statement decried the “intolerable” humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and called on Israel to halt its new and intensified campaign.

“Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7. We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate,” the three leaders wrote.

Netanyahu hit back at them.

“By asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed and by demanding a Palestinian state, the leaders in London, Ottowa [sic] and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities,” Netanyahu wrote on social media.