“So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop,” Macron told the BBC, expressing hope that other Western leaders will join his call.
Macron’s comments were met with pushback from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Hamas was to blame for civilian casualties as a result of its devastating onslaught in southern Israel last month.
“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 a statement from his office, likening the Gaza-ruling terror group to the Islamic State jihadist organization.
Netanyahu said 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.” READ MORE
