Condemn Hamas, not Israel: Netanyahu responds to French President Macron's call for ceasefire

Responding to French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a ceasefire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the responsibility for civilian deaths lies with Hamas.

Talking to BBC, Macron said that there is “no justification” for Israel to bomb “these babies, these ladies, these old people” adding that he hoped Western leaders would join his call for an immediate ceasefire.

“While Israel is doing everything to refrain from harming civilians and calling on them to leave areas of fighting, Hamas-ISIS is doing everything to prevent them from leaving for safe areas and is using them as human shields,” Netanyahu said in response to Macron.

He added that Hamas  is “cruelly holding our hostages — woman, children and the elderly — in a crime against humanity” and “uses schools, mosques and hospitals as terror command centers.”

“These crimes that Hamas-ISIS is coming today in Gaza, will tomorrow be committed in Paris, New York and everywhere around the world. World leaders must condemn Hamas-ISIS and not Israel,” the Israeli prime minister continued.

“It’s extremely important for all of us because of our principles, because we are democracies. It’s important for the mid-to-long run as well for the security of Israel itself, to recognize that all lives matter,” Macron told BBC.

The French president also rejected the notion that the best way for Israel to “protect [itself] is having a large bombing of Gaza,” saying it was creating “resentment and bad feelings” in the region.

Meanwhile, Israel is facing mounting pressure including from its main ally the United States, to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the death toll rose and fighting intensified between Israeli forces and Hamas militants near and around hospitals.

In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the Gaza crossfire, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India on Friday: “Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks.”

Blinken welcomed daily four-hour humanitarian pauses by Israel that the White House announced on Thursday and said more action was needed to safeguard Gaza’s civilians. But he reaffirmed US support for Israel’s campaign to ensure that Gaza can no longer be used “as a platform for launching terrorism.”

With inputs from agencies

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