WASHINGTON: France’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state will not include the opening of an embassy until Hamas frees the hostages it is holding in Gaza, President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview that aired Sunday.
“It will be, for us, a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine,” Macron told CBS News in an interview taped Thursday.
The interview was aired as Britain, Australia and Canada on Sunday recognized a Palestinian state in a coordinated, seismic shift from decades of Western foreign policy.
The move triggered swift anger from Israel, which finds itself under huge international pressure over its war against Hamas in Gaza and the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
Portugal was also set to recognize Palestinian statehood later Sunday, while France says it will do so along with other countries Monday at the United Nations.
Macron also spoke out strongly against any plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza — which they want to be part of a future sovereign state — when rebuilding the territory.
“But if the precondition of such a plan is to push them out, this is just a craziness,” Macron said on “Face the Nation.”
“We should not be — for the credibility of the United States, for the credibility of France — we cannot be implicitly or explicitly complacent with such a project.”
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France’s Macron says no embassy in Palestine until Gaza hostages freed
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France’s Macron says no embassy in Palestine until Gaza hostages freed
- Portugal is set to recognize Palestinian statehood later Sunday, while France says it will do so along with other countries Monday at the UN
Israeli military says its forces shot dead Palestinian rock-thrower in West Bank
RAMALLAH: Israeli soldiers shot at three Palestinians who were throwing rocks at cars in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and killed one of them, the Israeli military said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one person had been killed and one wounded in the incident. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. The Israeli military said that apart from the fatality, one other person was “neutralized” and one arrested.
A day earlier, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager who was driving a car toward them as well as a bystander at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The military initially said two “terrorists” were killed after soldiers opened fire at a car accelerating toward them, before later clarifying that only one was involved.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 17-year-old was driving the car and that a 55-year-old bystander was the second person killed.
Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported that 55-year-old Ziad Naim Abu Dawood, a municipal street cleaner, was killed while working. It said another Palestinian was killed but did not report the circumstances that led the soldiers to open fire.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the teen as 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Al-Rajabi.
The military did not report any injuries to the soldiers.
Violence has surged this year in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.
Since January, 51 Palestinian minors, aged under 18, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinians have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them deadly.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one person had been killed and one wounded in the incident. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. The Israeli military said that apart from the fatality, one other person was “neutralized” and one arrested.
A day earlier, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager who was driving a car toward them as well as a bystander at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The military initially said two “terrorists” were killed after soldiers opened fire at a car accelerating toward them, before later clarifying that only one was involved.
An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 17-year-old was driving the car and that a 55-year-old bystander was the second person killed.
Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported that 55-year-old Ziad Naim Abu Dawood, a municipal street cleaner, was killed while working. It said another Palestinian was killed but did not report the circumstances that led the soldiers to open fire.
The Palestinian health ministry identified the teen as 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Al-Rajabi.
The military did not report any injuries to the soldiers.
Violence has surged this year in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.
Since January, 51 Palestinian minors, aged under 18, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinians have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them deadly.
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