It's a strong statement. Emmanuel Macron took advantage of an interview on British television to express France's position in the war between Israel and Hamas. The French president "urges Israel to stop" bombing killing civilians in Gaza, in an interview with the BBC broadcast Friday night.
"We share (Israel's) pain. And we share their desire to get rid of terrorism," he said. But "de facto, today, civilians are being bombed. These babies, these women, these elderly people are being bombed and killed. There is "no justification" and "no legitimacy for this. So we urge Israel to stop," he said.
Hamas' health ministry announced that 11,078 people, including 4,506 children, had been killed in Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip since the start of the war unleashed by the terror movement's bloody attack on Israel on October 7. These figures are difficult to verify.
Worried about 'massive bombing'
This "reaction in the fight against terrorism, because it is led by a democracy, must be in accordance with the international rules of war and international humanitarian law," the French president implored.
Asked about a possible violation of international law by Israel, Macron stressed that he was "not a judge" but "a head of state." He also expressed concern that the "massive bombardment" of Gaza was creating "resentment" in the region. "It is important, in the medium and long term, as well as for the security of Israel itself, to recognize that all lives matter," he said.
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The meeting comes a day after a "humanitarian conference" held in Paris on Thursday at the initiative of the French president, during which he called for "working towards a ceasefire". "There is no other solution than a humanitarian pause first" to go to a "ceasefire, which will protect all civilians who have nothing to do with the terrorists," he insisted on Friday.
"It is impossible to explain that we want to fight terrorism by killing innocent people," the French president said. On the Israeli side, 1,200 people have died since the start of the war, the majority of them civilians killed on the day of the attack on Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.