German state media host calls Palestinians worse than animals

Veteran anchor Bettina Boettinger has claimed that people in Gaza lack dignity

Veteran German TV host Bettina Boettinger has claimed that Palestinians celebrating the exchange of hostages under an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal are worse than animals.

Last week, West Jerusalem and the Gaza-based militant group agreed to suspend hostilities after 15 months of intense fighting. Hamas and its allies are due to release hostages taken during their incursion into southern Israel in 2023, while the Jewish state is set to free thousands of Palestinian held in its custody.

On Monday, Boettinger, a long-standing employee of the German public broadcaster WDR, reacted on X to a post shared by another account, which branded Palestinian civilians celebrating the prisoner exchange alongside armed militants as “animals.” She responded in German: “No, animals have dignity, which these idiots do not have.”

The veteran TV personality has been with WDR since 1985 and is currently a co-anchor of the ‘Koelner Treff’ talk show, a position she assumed in 2017, according to her bio. Boettinger has also hosted the ceremonies of prestigious German media awards, including Grimme-Preis and Deutsche Kamerapreis.

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Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, after the group’s October 7, 2023 raid. Some 1,100 people were killed and over 200 hostages were taken to Gaza during the incursion. The Israeli military response has resulted in massive damage in the Palestinian enclave and the loss of at least 46,000 lives, according to local health officials.

The violence has not been confined to Israel and Gaza. The Israeli secret services and military have targeted Lebanon in a campaign to cripple the militant group Hezbollah, which supports Hamas. Direct exchanges of missile strikes by Israel and Iran also marked a major escalation of the rivalry between the two regional powers.