(AP/Martin Meissner)
Angela Merkel

“Whoever supports terror won’t be safe in Germany,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement. “Regardless of what shape the support takes.”

By United with Israel Staff and AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to affirm her nation’s support for the Jewish state as Hamas continues to attack it with successive waves of rocket attacks.

Merkel emphasized Germany’s solidarity with Israel and the country’s right to self-defense.

She condemned the continued rocket attacks from Gaza into Israeli and voiced her hope for a swift end to the fighting in light of the loss of civilian life.

Merkel’s office said she also stressed that the government will “continue to act decisively against protests in Germany at which hatred and anti-Semitism is spread.”

“This is terror, which is intended to kill people indiscriminately,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reportes in Berlin with regard to Palestinian rocket attacks emanating from Gaza. “The German government stands by Israel and its right to protect its population and defend itself.”

Seibert added that it was “tragic that so many human lives need to be lamented on both sides” but accused Hamas of “holding the Palestinian population in Gaza hostage” by launching its rockets from densely populated civilian areas.

On Wednesday, German police raided sites in seven German states as authorities announced a ban on three groups linked to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

Germany’s Interior Ministry said the groups are suspected of raising funds for families of killed fighters from the terror group.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and runs a global narcotics and money laundering operation, seeks Israel’s destruction.

“Whoever supports terror won’t be safe in Germany,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement. “Regardless of what shape the support takes, they won’t find any place to retreat to in our country.”

Germany announced last year it was banning activities by Hezbollah’s so-called “political wing” in Germany, a move welcomed by the United States and Israel.

German security officials estimate there are about 1,000 supporters of the terror group in Germany.