AhlulBayt News Agency: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused French President Emmanuel Macron of supporting Hamas after Macron criticized Israel’s blockade of humanitarian supplies to Gaza as “unacceptable” and “shameful.”
A statement from Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday claimed that Macron had once again chosen to align himself with Hamas and echo its narratives, accusing Israel of blood libels.
The statement further asserted that instead of supporting the Western camp and advocating for the release of Israeli captives, Macron was demanding that Israel surrender. It reiterated, “Israel will not stop and will not surrender.”
Macron’s remarks came during an interview with TF1 television network on Tuesday night, where he condemned Netanyahu’s actions, stating, “What he’s doing is shameful.”
The French president suggested that Europe should consider sanctioning Israel over the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing starvation.
“My job is to do everything I can to make it stop,” Macron said, adding that the possibility of revisiting EU trade cooperation agreements with Israel was under discussion. These agreements include provisions that waive customs duties on certain Israeli products.
Ongoing Tensions Between Macron and Netanyahu
This is not the first time the two leaders have publicly clashed over the issue.
Last month, Macron angered Israeli authorities by stating in another televised interview that France could recognize a Palestinian state “in the coming months.”
“I’m not doing it to please anyone. I’ll do it because at some point it will be right,” he said.
Following these remarks, Netanyahu called Macron to express “fierce opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state,” according to an official statement from his office on April 15.
Weapons Sales and Gaza Blockade
Macron’s criticism of Netanyahu comes despite reports from investigative websites Disclose and Marsactu, which revealed that Marseille-based firm Eurolinks had sold Israel M27 links—metal pieces used to join rifle cartridges into ammunition belts for machine guns.
According to these reports, such ammunition “could have been used against civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
Since early March, Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, unilaterally terminating the January ceasefire and resuming its military campaign against Palestinians in the region.
Starvation Crisis in Gaza
On Tuesday, The New York Times (NYT) reported that some Israeli military officials had “privately concluded that Palestinians in Gaza face widespread starvation unless aid deliveries are restored within weeks.”
Citing information from three Israeli officials familiar with the matter, the NYT wrote that Israel had maintained for months that its blockade on food and fuel did not pose a major threat to civilian life, despite warnings from the United Nations and other aid agencies that a famine was looming.
Israeli officers reportedly acknowledged that “immediate steps were needed to ensure that the system to supply aid could be reinstated fast enough to prevent starvation.”
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