Macron urges Israel to ‘put an end to strikes on Gaza’

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday urged Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire” in a phone call between the two leaders.

Macron’s intervention comes at a time when Israel has resumed its bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory following the collapse of a fragile truce with the Palestinian group Hamas.

“I called on the Israeli prime minister to put an end to the strikes on Gaza and return to the ceasefire, which Hamas must accept. I underlined that humanitarian aid must be delivered again immediately,” the French leader wrote on the X social network.

Israel resumed intense bombing of the Palestinian territory on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas which the Palestinian militant group sparked with its October 7, 2023 attack.

On Sunday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis killed at least eight people, including five children, as the displaced Palestinians sheltering there were observing Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Macron likewise “called on Israel to strictly respect the ceasefire” in Lebanon, a former French protectorate where Israel on Friday bombed the southern Beirut stronghold of Hamas’ ally Hezbollah for the first time after four months of truce.

The Beirut strike came after rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israel on Friday, testing the fragile truce.

Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Israel’s arch-rival Iran, has denied involvement.

Netanyahu has insisted Israel will target anywhere in Lebanon it deems a threat, warning in a statement on Friday that “the equation has changed.”

Macron had previously denounced the Beirut strikes, which Lebanon’s health ministry reported had killed five people, as an “unacceptable” violation.