PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron evoked an international coalition along the lines of the one that defeated Daesh extremists in Iraq and Syria to fight Palestinian militant group Hamas but such an idea will struggle to even get off the ground, experts say.
Macron floated the proposal during a visit to Israel Tuesday, as a conflict rages between Israel and Hamas that has seen thousands of civilians killed on both sides.
It appears he did not wish to signal that any international forces should be sent into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, as Israel prepares for a ground operation that it wants to destroy the Islamist group, even if the comments created a certain ambiguity.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel launched by Hamas on October 7 from the Gaza Strip. More than 220 hostages are being held by Hamas in the territory.
During his visit to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Macron said that “France is ready for the international coalition against Daesh ... to also be able to fight against Hamas.”
“I propose to our international partners that we should build a regional and international coalition to battle against terrorist groups that threaten us all,” he added.
Macron’s advisers appeared eager to rapidly dampen any assumptions his comments may have created about the potential of any Western-backed ground force emerging to join Israel in its stated aim of destroying Hamas.
An Elysee source said the aim of such a coalition would be to draw “inspiration” from the anti-Daesh alliance that emerged from 2014 to defeat the Islamist extremists in Iraq and Syria.
The source also emphasised that the anti-IS coalition was “not limited to operations” on the ground but also the training of Iraqi forces, the sharing of information between partners and the fight against terror financing.
Macron’s proposal “draws inspiration from the experience of the Global Coalition Against Daesh and seeing what aspects can be replicated against Hamas,” said the source, who asked not to be named.
The coalition worked to dislodge and ultimately defeat the Daesh group which had seized swathes of territory in northern Syria and northern Iraq including the key Iraqi city of Mosul.
It was set up in 2014 and says it has 86 “members” — countries and groups such as the European Union and the Arab League — and worked notably with Kurdish fighters who handled the bulk of fighting on the ground in Syria backed and trained by Western special forces.
Experts say that the degree of unanimity that was found over the campaign to defeat Daesh would not translate into a campaign against Hamas, making it tough to simply expand the existing coalition.
The list of anti-Daesh coalition members includes “many countries which absolutely do not share France’s position on Hamas” such as Qatar, Jordan and Turkiye, said Elie Tenenbaum of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
“Israel is not a member of this coalition, so that would also be problematic,” he added.
“The feasibility of extending the scope of the global coalition against Daesh to the fight against Hamas seems highly improbable to me.”
Renad Mansour, senior research fellow at London-based think tank Chatham House, added that whereas there was large local support from Iraqi and Syrian populations in the fight against Daesh any such the campaign against Hamas “will be much more difficult because it (Hamas) is more organic, from Gaza.”
“It would be a much more difficult task and, as we have already seen, the nature of Gaza and Palestine is going to result in significant casualties of civilians.”
At least 5,791 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed across the Gaza Strip in relentless Israeli bombardments since October 7, according to the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health.
More than 1,400 people have also been killed in Israel since Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on 7 October, according to Israeli authorities.
Tenenbaum nevertheless emphasised that such coalitions against extremist groups are not limited to operations on the ground.
“Missions to combat propaganda, the financing of terrorism, stabilization missions and reconstruction of liberated areas can have their place in the fight against Hamas,” he said.
Skepticism over Macron idea of anti-Daesh ‘coalition’ to fight Hamas
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Skepticism over Macron idea of anti-Daesh ‘coalition’ to fight Hamas
- Macron floated the proposal during a visit to Israel Tuesday, as a conflict rages between Israel and Hamas that has seen thousands of civilians killed on both sides
Egypt mourns death of Iran’s president
- The Egyptian president expressed Egypt’s solidarity with the leadership and people of Iran during this tragic time
CAIRO: Egypt mourned the deaths of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Egypt’s presidency said in a statement: “It is with deep grief and sorrow that the Arab Republic of Egypt mourns the death of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and their escorts on Sunday in a tragic crash.
“President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi extends his sincere condolences to the people of Iran, asking Allah to envelop President Raisi and the deceased with his mercy and grant solace and comfort to their families.”
The Egyptian president expressed Egypt’s solidarity with the leadership and people of Iran during this tragic time.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry extended his condolences to the Iranian government and people over the deaths of Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian, according to ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid.
A helicopter carrying Raisi, Amir-Abdollahian, and several other officials crashed in mountainous terrain in the country’s northwest on Sunday. On Monday, Tehran announced the deaths of Raisi, Amir-Abdollahian, and their accompanying delegation in the crash.
Israel calls ICC prosecutor’s bid for PM arrest warrant a ‘historical disgrace’
- Katz denounced the move as a “scandalous decision” that amounted to “a frontal attack... on the victims of October 7“
- The minister added that Israel would establish a special committee to fight the ICC prosecutor’s efforts to secure a warrant
JERUSALEM: Israel on Monday slammed as a “historical disgrace” an application by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The prosecutor, Karim Khan, applied for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as top Hamas leaders on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Khan “in the same breath mentions the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense of the State of Israel alongside the abominable Nazi monsters of Hamas — a historical disgrace that will be remembered forever.”
The prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for crimes including “wilful killing,” “extermination and/or murder” and “starvation.”
Katz denounced the move as a “scandalous decision” that amounted to “a frontal attack... on the victims of October 7” when Hamas launched their attack on Israel, sparking the Gaza war.
The minister added that Israel would establish a special committee to fight the ICC prosecutor’s efforts to secure a warrant, and also embark on a diplomatic push against it.
Katz said he planned to “speak with foreign ministers in leading countries of the world so that they oppose the prosecutor’s decision and announce that, even if orders are issued, they do not intend to enforce them on the leaders of the State of Israel.”
35,562 Palestinians killed in Gaza offensive since Oct. 7 — health ministry
- 106 Palestinians were killed and 176 injured in the past 24 hours
DUBAI: More than 35,562 Palestinians have been killed and 79,652 injured in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.
One hundred and six Palestinians were killed and 176 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Source close to Hezbollah says 4 dead in Israeli strikes on Lebanon
- The source close to Hezbollah told AFP that “at least four Hezbollah fighters were killed in Israeli raids on two different sites in southern Lebanon“
- The Israeli military said fighter jets struck “a Hezbollah terrorist cell”
BEIRUT: A source close to Hezbollah said four fighters were killed Monday in south Lebanon, with the Iran-backed group announcing two dead and a retaliatory attack, while Israel claimed strikes.
Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
The source close to Hezbollah told AFP that “at least four Hezbollah fighters were killed in Israeli raids on two different sites in southern Lebanon,” identifying the locations as Naqura on the coast and Mais Al-Jabal, a border village to the east.
The Shiite Muslim movement said two of its fighters, both from Naqura, had been killed, without providing further details.
The Israeli military said fighter jets struck “a Hezbollah terrorist cell” and a launch post in the Mais Al-Jabal area, while Israeli army “artillery fired to remove a threat” in the Naqura area.
Hezbollah said it launched a heavy rocket attack at an Israeli army barracks in the country’s north “in retaliation” for the Naqura strike, while also announcing other attacks on Israeli positions.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli strikes on Mais Al-Jabal and Naqura, where it said Israel fired near Hezbollah-affiliated rescue personnel and wounded a civilian.
The fighting has killed at least 423 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but also including 82 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 14 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
The violence has raised fears of all-out conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which went to war in 2006.
War monitor says Israeli strikes kill six pro-Iran fighters in Syria
- A Hezbollah source said that at least one fighter from the group was killed in Israeli strikes in the Qusayr area
Beirut: A war monitor said at least six pro-Iran fighters were killed Monday in Israeli strikes in Syria near the Lebanese border, in an area where Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group holds sway.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “Israeli strikes targeted two positions of pro-Iran groups in the Homs region,” including “a Hezbollah site in the Qusayr area” near the border where “six Iran-backed fighters were killed.”
The Observatory did not specify their nationalities.
A Hezbollah source told AFP that at least one fighter from the group was killed in Israeli strikes in the Qusayr area.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.
On Saturday, the Observatory said an Israeli drone strike near the Lebanese border targeted a vehicle carrying “a Hezbollah commander and his companion,” without reporting casualties.
Hezbollah did not announce any deaths among its ranks on Saturday.
On May 9, Israeli strikes on Syria targeted facilities belonging to Iraq’s Al-Nujaba armed movement, the Observatory and the pro-Iran group said, with Damascus saying an unidentified building was attacked.
The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in its northern neighbor in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters including from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
But the strikes increased after Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, when the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group launched an unprecedented attack against Israel.
Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 after Damascus cracked down on anti-government protests.
