Emmanuel Macron drastically raises his voice, perhaps like never before. During a telephone call to the Israeli Prime Minister this Wednesday, February 14, the French president assured that Israeli operations in Gaza “must stop” because “the human toll and the humanitarian situation” are “intolerable”, reported the Elysée .
This Wednesday evening, Benjamin Netanyahu once again promised a “powerful” operation in Rafah “after” having allowed the civilian population to leave this city. “We will fight until complete victory, which involves powerful action in Rafah and this, after allowing the civilian population to leave the combat zones,” declared the Israeli Prime Minister in a message in Hebrew on his account Official Telegram.
An unjustified operation, according to the Elysée. Emmanuel Macron “expressed France’s firm opposition to an Israeli offensive in Rafah, which could only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude, as to any forced displacement of populations, which would constitute violations of international law humanitarian and would pose an additional risk of regional escalation.
“The extreme urgency” of a ceasefire
Emmanuel Macron also insisted on “the extreme urgency that there was to conclude, without further delay, an agreement on a ceasefire which finally guarantees the protection of all civilians and the massive entry of the emergency aid”, while negotiations are being held this week in Cairo for a possible truce in the fighting, in which Israel and Hamas, but also Egypt, the United States and Qatar are participating. Emmanuel Macron also recalled that the “liberation of all the hostages, including our three compatriots, was an absolute priority for France”
The French head of state also described as “unjustifiable” the insufficient humanitarian access, according to him, to a “population in a situation of absolute humanitarian emergency” and considered it “imperative to open the port of Ashdod, a land route direct from Jordan” as well as “all crossing points” in order to deliver aid.
France “condemns” the “Israeli colonization policy”
He thus reiterated the French “condemnation” of the Israeli colonization policy and called for the dismantling of the outposts”, calling “to avoid any measure likely to lead to an uncontrolled escalation in Jerusalem and the West Bank”. All this, while the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday that it had taken sanctions against 28 “extremist Israeli settlers” in the West Bank, guilty of “violence against Palestinian civilians”.
The French president also urged “the Prime Minister and all Israeli leaders to have the courage to offer their fellow citizens a future of peace”, that “only the two-state solution”, and therefore the “creation of a Palestinian State”, can in his eyes allow. While for its part, the Israeli government refuses to discuss a “two-state solution”, Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly reaffirming his opposition to “Palestinian sovereignty”.
Finally, Emmanuel Macron once again underlined “the importance of avoiding a conflagration in the region, particularly in Lebanon and the Red Sea”, where the situation is extremely tense. Israeli combat planes notably carried out a series of raids on Lebanon on Wednesday, which left at least four dead according to Lebanese media, after a rocket attack in which a soldier was killed.