French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on Thursday that recognising a Palestinian state would isolate the militant group Hamas and reiterated his condemnation of Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza.
“Recognising a Palestinian state is simply deciding to say: ‘The official perspective of Palestinian folks and what they undergo at present has nothing to do with Hamas,'” Macron mentioned in English in an interview with Israeli tv’s Channel 12.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state is one of the best ways to isolate Hamas.”
France and Britain are amongst a number of Western international locations which have pledged to formally recognise a Palestinian state this month on the United Nations General Assembly.
Their plan goals to sideline Hamas and permit a two-state answer to the decades-long Arab-Israeli battle — a proposal resisted by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With Israeli settlers pushing to occupy Palestinian territory within the West Bank, Macron mentioned it was now the “final minute earlier than proposing the 2 states would turn out to be completely unimaginable”.
Israeli tanks and jets pounded Gaza City on Thursday in a serious floor offensive, the newest part within the two-year assault sparked by lethal Hamas assaults in October 2023.
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Those assaults resulted within the deaths of 1,219 folks, most of them civilians, based on an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory marketing campaign has killed no less than 65,141 folks, additionally largely civilians, based on figures from the territory’s well being ministry that the United Nations considers dependable.
“This sort of operations in Gaza is completely counterproductive” and “a failure”, Macron mentioned.
“You are utterly destroying the picture and the credibility of Israel, not simply within the area, however in public opinion in every single place.”
