BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called yesterday for solidarity with Israel in its conflict with Hamas and said the Jewish state had both the right and the obligation to protect its citizens against the rocket attacks from Gaza. "I don't think we can imagine, if we're not there, what it means to be always in fear of being fired at with your family," Merkel told the Bundestag lower house of parliament. "That is why I say emphatically that there is the right to defend the population and the Israeli state has this right, and this duty," she said. Merkel renewed her appeal for a rapid ceasefire and the resumption of political dialogue between the two sides.
