Israel – Hamas war: Emmanuel Macron calls on the French to “stay united” – L’Express

Emmanuel Macron insisted this Thursday in a televised speech that in the face of terrorism, there could “never be a yes, but”, estimating that “those who confuse the Palestinian cause and the justification of terrorism are committing a moral, political and strategic error “. The head of state assured the Jewish community that the Republic would be there to “protect” it and would be “ruthless with all those who carry hatred”. The French president also called on the French to remain “united”. “Let us not add by illusion or by calculation national fractures to international fractures and let us not give in in the face of any form of hatred,” he declared, specifying that the toll of French people killed during the bloody offensive of Hamas had increased to 13 nationals. Seventeen others are still “missing and undoubtedly, for some of them, held hostage”, he added, pledging to “do everything possible” to save the French hostages, including the families “begged” him just before intervening.

While thousands of foreigners have been stranded in Israel and the Palestinian territories since the start of the war on Saturday, many countries are trying to implement the evacuation of their nationals, including France. Several special flights will be organized on Friday and Saturday between Israel and France to allow nationals who have not yet found a commercial flight to return to national territory, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday. A first special Air France flight to repatriate French people was scheduled to leave Tel Aviv this Thursday at 4:40 p.m. for an arrival at 8:35 p.m. at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

Palestinian President Mohammed Abbas rejects all “practices related to the killing of civilians or their abuse on both sides”, and calls for “an immediate end to the comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people”, his office said following a meeting in Amman with the King of Jordan Abdullah II.

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel this Thursday for a solidarity visit. “We will always be at your side,” he assured, after an interview with the Prime Minister, while considering that the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinians were not represented by the Islamist movement in power in the Strip. Gaza.

While the United States usually calls for restraint in the event of violence abroad, the Biden administration has clearly said it supports Israel’s right to respond firmly, at a time when the Jewish state responds with bombings. from the Gaza Strip.

But this response must be carried out in accordance with the “law of war”, asked the American president during a meeting with representatives of the Jewish community in the United States. “What sets Israel, the United States and other democracies apart, when incredibly difficult situations like this arise, is our respect for international law and the laws of war,” Antony Blinken said earlier.

On the sidelines of his trip to Brussels, American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for his part indicated that the United States had had no indication that a Hamas attack was being prepared against Israel. “If we had had such indications, we would have shared them with Israel, but, to my knowledge, we have not seen anything of the sort,” he assured during a press conference given after of a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

And to assure that Washington places “no conditions” on the use of US military equipment supplied to Tel Aviv, which responded with massive strikes to the assault launched by Hamas. “This is a professional army led by a professional command. We hope and expect that they will do things right in implementing their campaign,” added the American minister.

Israel continued to relentlessly shell the Gaza Strip overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, after vowing to “crush” and “destroy” the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, responsible for the deadliest attack in history against the Jewish state. Several salvos of rockets also left the Palestinian strip towards the south of Israel. The bombings hit dozens of buildings, factories, mosques and stores, according to Hamas. Women, their children in their arms, were fleeing among the rubble, in devastated streets.

“Every member of Hamas is a dead man,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday during a first solemn speech with his emergency government, formed the same day with Benny Gantz, one of the main opposition leaders. . “Hamas is Daesh [NDLR : le groupe djihadiste Etat islamique] and we will crush it and destroy it like the world destroyed Daesh,” he added after describing the attack as “savagery never seen since the Holocaust.”

This Thursday, the IDF announced that it had bombed the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. “Around 6,000 bombs have been dropped on the Gaza Strip for a total weight of 4,000 tonnes of explosives”, since the start of the Israeli response. “Hundreds of terrorists” have been killed, specifies the Israeli army in its press release. As a reminder, the objective of the Israeli army is the “liquidation” of the government of the Palestinian Islamist movement controlling the Gaza Strip, according to a military spokesperson.

“Our own history, our responsibility resulting from the Holocaust impose on us the permanent duty to defend the existence and security of Israel,” declared Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday. “The Federal Ministry of the Interior will issue a ban on the activity of Hamas in Germany,” he added to German MPs. “An association like Samidoun, whose members celebrate the most brutal terrorist acts in the streets, will be banned in Germany,” he announced.

Hamas said it had fired rockets towards Tel Aviv after Israeli strikes targeting “civilians” in two refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave controlled by the Islamist movement. “The Ezzedine al-Qassem Brigades [NDLR : branche armée du Hamas] fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to Israeli strikes targeting civilians in the Al-Shati and Al-Jabalia camps,” Hamas said. AFP correspondents witnessed dozens of strikes air strikes Thursday morning towards the Al-Shati camp and northern Gaza.

The social network .

“Since the terrorist attack on Israel, we have acted to remove or report tens of thousands of posts,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a letter addressed to European Commissioner Thierry Breton and posted on her account.

And after alerting X and Meta, the European Union warns the Chinese social network TikTok concerning the dissemination of “illegal content” and “false information”, following Hamas attacks against Israel.

“Your platform is used intensively by children and adolescents. You have a particular obligation to protect them from violent content […] which appear to be circulating widely on your platform without any particular security measures”, wrote the European Commissioner for Digital, Thierry Breton, in a letter to the boss of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, published on the social network Bluesky.