Netanyahu disagrees sharply
Macron calls for a stop to the Gaza bombing
November 11, 2023, 4:04 a.m
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Unlike the USA, Great Britain or Germany, the French President of Israel is calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The bombing must stop immediately. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu strongly opposes this and refers Macron and his warnings to Hamas.
In view of the suffering of the civilian population during the Israeli military operation against the Islamist Hamas, French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. “Civilians, babies, women and old people are being bombed and killed. There is no justification for attacking civilians. We call on Israel to stop it,” Macron said in an interview on the British television channel BBC. “I would like to remind everyone of international law, I call for a ceasefire.” Asked whether he wanted other leaders – including in the United States and Britain – to join his calls for a ceasefire, Macron said: “I hope they will.” Meanwhile, Israel fears that the radical Islamic Hamas would take advantage of a ceasefire to regroup.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately rejected Macron’s allegations. “Responsibility for the suffering of civilians lies with Hamas, not Israel. While Israel does everything in its power to spare civilians and calls on them to leave the combat zones, Hamas abuses them as human shields and acts “Everything to prevent them from going to safer areas,” Netanyahu wrote on the news platform should condemn Hamas, not Israel.”
An Israeli military spokesman had already emphasized in the afternoon that Israel had not agreed to a ceasefire in the fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but only to temporary and locally limited ceasefires. “There is no ceasefire. I repeat, there is no ceasefire,” said army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht. “What we’re doing, this four-hour window, is tactical, local pauses for humanitarian assistance.” The USA had recently announced that there would be no operations in the north of the Palestinian territory for four hours every day in order to enable Palestinians to reach safety.
WHO chief: A child dies every ten minutes
The World Health Organization also expressed strong criticism of the bombings. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on average one child was killed every 10 minutes in the Gaza Strip. Half of the 36 hospitals and two-thirds of the primary health care centers were not functioning and those that were operating were operating far beyond their capacity, the WHO director told the 15-member UN Security Council and in a post on X .
“The hospital corridors are overflowing with the injured, sick and dying. Overcrowded morgues. Operations without anesthesia. Tens of thousands of displaced people seeking shelter in hospitals,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Since October 7, the WHO has verified more than 250 attacks on health care in Gaza and the West Bank, while there have been 25 attacks on health care in Israel.
Israel’s UN ambassador once again questioned the credibility of information about those injured and killed in the Gaza Strip. “Who provides the UN with these so-called facts? Does this information come from unbiased and impartial third parties?” Gilad Erdan told the UN Security Council. “The answer is no. All information about the situation on the ground that this council receives comes from Hamas and not from international UN staff in Gaza.”