German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday that he is confident Israel is respecting international law in its war against the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Israel is a democratic state that is governed by very humanitarian principles,” Olaf Scholz said after arriving at the European summit in Brussels, German news agency DPA reported, citing Agerpres.

“Therefore, you can be sure that the Israeli army will also respect the norms of international law in its actions. I have no doubt about it,” assured the head of the German federal government.

As a result of a large-scale terrorist attack on October 7 in the south of Israel, the Islamist group Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and took about 220 hostages. According to the UN, more than 6,500 people died in the Gaza Strip as a result of repression by the Israeli army in the form of bombings.

Calls for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, a territory subject to a total Israeli blockade, have sparked heated debate in the EU in recent days. European leaders would rather support pauses than a truce in the war in the Gaza Strip, according to the draft conclusions of the current European summit.

“It is very important that we do everything possible so that the hostages are released, humanitarian aid reaches the Gaza Strip and people with dual citizenship and employees of international organizations can be evacuated,” Chancellor Scholz also said.

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