PARIS, France
French President, Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were “too many civilian losses” in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, his office said Sunday.
Israel has vowed to destroy
the Palestinian militant group after it carried out the deadliest attack in the
country’s history on Oct. 7.
About 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, were killed in Israel during the attack and around 240 taken
hostage, according to Israeli officials.
The retaliatory Israeli air
and ground campaign has killed 13,000 people in Gaza, mainly civilians and
including thousands of children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health
ministry.
Macron, whose country is a
firm ally of Israel, reminded Netanyahu of the “absolute necessity to
distinguish terrorists from the population” and “the importance of achieving an
immediate humanitarian truce leading to a ceasefire.”
Macron also condemned violence
against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank in a conversation with
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, the French presidency said.
The French leader told
Netanyahu about his “great concern over the escalation in violence against
Palestinian civilians” in the West Bank and called for calm.
Macron also told Abbas of “the
need for the Palestinian Authority and all countries in the region to
unequivocally and with the greatest firmness condemn the terrorist attack
carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7.”
Israeli troops and settlers
have killed more than 200 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began,
according to the health ministry in Ramallah.
Earlier on Sunday, Macron’s
office announced that France was preparing to send a helicopter carrier to the
eastern Mediterranean to offer medical assistance in Gaza.
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