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BRUSSELS — Germany, a staunch supporter of Israel and its largest weapons supplier after the United States, said Friday that it would not approve new weapons exports to Israel "that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice."
The announcement by Chancellor Friedrich Merz came as Berlin has been under pressure from European neighbors and public opinion at home.
It was not immediately clear which weapons exports would stop or if any shipments were imminent. But even if it stops short of a full arms embargo, Friday's decision is a big policy shift for Germany, given its relationship with Israel, which is shaped by historical guilt over the Holocaust.
Since the European Union announced a deal with Israel in July to let more food into Gaza, aid groups say dozens of people have starved to death in the Palestinian enclave. Still, the E.U. as a bloc has refrained from imposing penalties on Israel, even as Brussels says famine is stalking "virtually the entire Gaza population," and after a recent review warned of an Israeli siege weaponizing starvation.
Germany has been - and, so far, remains - a key holdout of efforts to pressure Israel at the European Union.
The 27-nation E.U. - Israel's biggest trading partner - has threatened action since May. The E.U.'s diplomatic service launched a review that found Israel breached human rights obligations, and officials drafted options including suspending trade ties and placing sanctions on ministers.
That debate took a back seat when E.U. officials said last month that Israel had agreed to allow more aid shipments. But while the deal delayed action in Brussels, it has failed to get more food to the hungry people in Gaza, according to current and former E.U. diplomats, as well as aid agencies.
The E.U. acknowledges its conditions have not been met and says Israel is denying E.U. humanitarian officials access to Gaza for verification. Still, the bloc has failed to follow through on its own threats, unable to enact the one proposal now on the table: a partial freeze of Israeli access to an E.U. research fund. E.U. diplomats say they have yet to secure the majority needed because Germany and Italy are holding out.
Israel's European allies are not only averse to upending political and economic ties, diplomats and analysts say. Some are also wary of diverging too far from the United States or drawing the ire of President Donald Trump, who has stood by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Many governments "are terrified of angering Trump," said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute for International Affairs and a former E.U. foreign policy adviser.
"It is definitely banal," she said of the E.U. proposal. "But it could be meaningful if it becomes a turning point" that pushes the E.U. toward serious trade measures to pressure Israel. "If it isn't, then it becomes the fig leaf behind which E.U. complicity continues."
Nearly two years in, Israel's war in Gaza, one of this century's most destructive wars, is now testing relationships with some of Israel's most loyal European allies, which issued a blanket defense after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
European nations - which like the U.S. back Israel in an alliance safeguarding their interests in the Middle East - have strained to go far beyond scolding as images emerge of children in Gaza so emaciated their ribs jut out of their small bodies.
But even in Germany, with polls showing public opinion on Israel shifting, Merz has faced pressure from coalition partners, as the Social Democrats pushed for sanctions to "no longer be taboo."
Merz's announcement on Friday began by reiterating that "Israel has right to defend itself" against Hamas. Yet, he said, the latest Israeli plans to reoccupy Gaza make it "increasingly difficult" to achieve the release of hostages held by Hamas or promote negotiations on a ceasefire. Merz also noted Israel's obligations to provide food and basic needs to Palestinians in Gaza.
As rights groups, former ambassadors and some current staff slam the E.U.'s dillydallying, some see it as a testament to E.U. divisions and reluctance to use its leverage on the global stage.
Germany's main European partners, meanwhile, have charted a different course.
A pledge by French President Emmanuel Macron to recognize a Palestinian state has antagonized Trump - who has said it's "up to Israel" whether to reoccupy Gaza. Britain followed with its own promise on Palestinian statehood, which most of the world's countries recognize.
The French effort seeks to reintroduce the prospect of a negotiated peace, which seems more elusive than ever. European governments have also condemned renewed Israeli plans for settlements that would split the occupied West Bank - land central to any future Palestinian state.
Netanyahu, who has long opposed a Palestinian state, has lambasted the European plans, and Israel denounced the E.U. review of trade ties. Netanyahu's office said he spoke with Merz and "expressed his disappointment" with Friday's decision on arms exports.
Israel blames Hamas for diverting aid, a claim disputed by U.N. and E.U. officials.
The E.U. - a major donor of aid to Palestinians - says it wants no part in Israel's arrangement with a private organization, tied to the Israeli and U.S. governments, running distribution sites in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians seeking food have been killed, including by Israeli gunfire, near the sites or in looting incidents along the routes of food convoys since May, according to the U.N.
"The sheer scale of human suffering in Gaza is shattering," the E.U. commissioner for humanitarian aid, Hadja Lahbib, said this week, calling on Hamas to release all the hostages in Gaza and for Israel to "end its starvation of Gaza."
Berlin and Brussels say there has been some positive movement since Israel, facing global outrage, recently announced looser aid restrictions, but officials say it is far from enough for those in Gaza trapped in a struggle for survival.
Little has practically changed in the month since the E.U. said Israel agreed to let aid flow into the Gaza Strip and since Israel later said it would allow distribution in parts of the enclave, according to Palestinian officials and humanitarian agencies working there. "The capacity to scale is not there," World Food Program country director Antoine Renard told The Washington Post after a week in Gaza. "It's not because we can't. It's because we are being prevented to do this job."
James Moran, a former E.U. ambassador and fellow at the Center for European Policy Studies, said the July aid deal became a smoke screen "for doing nothing." He's among more than 55 ex-ambassadors who published a letter to the bloc's leaders, calling for tougher measures "to bring these atrocities to an end."
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, whose country is pushing for suspending the E.U. accord with Israel, said some European neighbors "don't realize that at this moment, it's European values themselves that are at stake, and our perception in the eyes of the world."
Spain has backed the E.U. proposal - to bar Israeli start-ups from future funding for some tech projects - but "it seems to us to be the minimum," Albares said in an interview.
The E.U. association agreement with Israel governs relations, with perks on trade and visa access. It also includes human rights commitments. Suspending it requires unanimity that is unlikely, while other steps - halting preferential trade, banning imports from illegal settlements and the research fund idea under debate - could pass with enough backing. A few nations such as Hungary oppose the move, leaving it down to holdouts Germany and Italy, whose prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has warm ties with Trump. The E.U. association agreement with Israel governs relations, with perks on trade and visa access. It also includes human rights commitments. Suspending it requires unanimity that is unlikely, while other steps - halting preferential trade, banning imports from illegal settlements and the research fund idea under debate - could pass with enough backing. "This isn't even enough," said one E.U. diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share internal deliberations. "Israel could wipe out Gaza, and some will still be talking about the need for dialogue."