Frederiksen comments on Israel/Gaza
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is horrified by support for the Hamas movement in Denmark and other European countries. Writing in a post on Facebook and Instagram she wrote: “Hamas is in cahoots with everything that is opposite what we stand for. Denmark is a peaceful and tolerant country. And it is not reasonable for the security situation in Denmark to be aggravated by what is happening in the Middle East,” says Frederiksen.
It was the Hamas movement that launched an attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, October 7, killing at least 1400. In response, Israel has since bombed the Gaza Strip, killing at least 4,741 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In Denmark, there have since been a number of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, most recently in Copenhagen on Sunday. In her post, Frederiksen calls the Hamas attack a “brutal terrorist attack” and notes that not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed in one day. However, she also writes that Israel must abide by the laws of war and that she distances herself from anyone “who may celebrate the horrors that befall the Palestinians”.
According to Mette Frederiksen, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is also “terrible and unsustainable, just as it was before the war started”. She refers to acute shortages of food, fuel, clean water and medicine. “It touches me deeply that many children are particularly affected. Israel must protect the civilian population within international humanitarian law, and from Denmark we are sending more money for humanitarian aid,” she writes. It has not been possible to elaborate on the issue, as according to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Prime Minister is on her way to Japan. In the coming days, she will meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. /ritzau/