BERLIN (AP) — Germany won’t authorize any exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza “until further notice,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday, in a strikingly quick response by one of Israel’s strongest international backers to a decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet to take over Gaza City.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said “this further escalation will result in more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction."