JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday slammed the “hypocritical and mendacious moralising” remarks of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who warned of possible “long-lasting apartheid” in Israel.
Speaking about clashes between Jews and Arabs that erupted in several Israeli cities during the latest conflict with Gaza, Le Drian said the “risk of apartheid is high” without an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
“If in the future we had a solution other than the two-state solution, we would have the ingredients of long-lasting apartheid,” Le Drian told RTL radio and Le Figaro newspaper in a Sunday interview.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu expressed his “sharp protest” against the French government, following Le Drian’s “outrageous” remarks.
“The minister said that Israel was liable to become an apartheid state — a brazen, false claim that is without any foundation,” Netanyahu said in a video recording issued by his office.
“We will not accept any hypocritical and mendacious moralising on this issue,” he said.
Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people in 11 days of conflict from May 10, the health ministry in Gaza says.
Rocket and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian national and two Thai workers, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded.
The US-based group Human Rights Watch and Israel’s B’Tselem recently accused Israel of running an “apartheid” system, a charge Israel has strongly rejected.
Netanyahu lashes out at French FM after ‘apartheid’ risk comment
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Netanyahu lashes out at French FM after ‘apartheid’ risk comment
- Netanyahu expressed his “sharp protest” against the French government, following Le Drian’s “outrageous” remarks
Israel agrees to ‘limited reopening’ of Rafah crossing: PM’s office
- The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza.
Reopening Rafah forms part of a Gaza truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed after Israeli forces took control of it during the war.
The Israeli military also said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, a non-commissioned officer in the police’s elite Yassam unit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the reopening would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.
It said Israel’s military was “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all of the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort to locate and return” Gvili’s body.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” it said.
