“Reports about many deaths following the Israeli air strike on al-Mawasi are terrible,” Germany’s foreign office said in a post on X, Al Jazeera reports.

It deflected blame for the Israeli attack on Hamas, however, saying the group using “civilians as human shields is disgusting and a crime”.

“The Israeli army is obliged to protect the civilian population as best as possible,” it added.

“The terrible incident in al-Mawasi shows: There is no military solution for Gaza. We need a humanitarian ceasefire and the release of the hostages more urgently than ever so that the dying ends.”