French President Emmanuel Macron became the first European head of state to call for a temporary “ceasefire” in Gaza on Thursday during the opening ceremony of a conference on aid for the Palestinian enclave, which has been under a full air and ground siege by Israel since Hamas’s October 7 offensive.
“In the immediate term, we need to work on protecting civilians,” Macron said. “To do that, we need a humanitarian pause very quickly.”
The assistance meeting on Thursday was thrown together in a hurry on the fringes of the annual Paris Peace Forum that takes place on November 10-11.
Last week, France’s foreign minister stated, “The idea is to go around all of the major donors and speed up aid to Gaza.”
Since the beginning of Israel’s announced war on Hamas, French ministers and many of its politicians, expressing full support for the Israeli government and describing Hamas as “a terrorist group,” have banned pro-Palestinian protests (but not pro-Israeli protests) and threatened jail for pro-Palestinian protestors.
A week ago, during his visit to Israel, Macron called for the creation of an international coalition to combat what he termed “terrorist groups.” Speaking at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said, “I’m here [in Israel] to express my support and solidarity, and our support today and tomorrow in all areas of this war against terrorism.”
Dozens of demonstrators rallied in Al-Manara Square, in the center of Ramallah, Palestine last month and burned photographs of French President Emmanuel Macron in protest of his visit to the occupied territories.
Israel has refused to negotiate regarding humanitarian supplies for civilians in the enclave of 2.4 million people, where the health ministry says that Israeli Defense Forces have now killed over 10,300 people, many of them children and women, in the last four weeks since October 7.
Concerns over the fate of Gaza’s population most of whom are unable to evacuate the blockaded enclave leading many observers to call Israel’s war an ongoing “genocide,” have fueled worldwide calls for a ceasefire or, at minimum, a humanitarian “pause” in the onslaught.