Singapore (TDI): French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Friday that France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian assistance to Gaza, reiterating that Paris was committed to a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The aid blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground,” Macron said at a joint media conference in Singapore with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
He cautioned that if there is no response to his call, France will have to toughen its position. He said that Paris may consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers.
However, he expressed optimism that Israel will change its stance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has criticized the growing international pressure over the war in Gaza, the deadliest fighting in decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
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Earlier, the White House announced that Israel has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza.
Israeli media also reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had informed the families of hostages in Gaza that Israel had accepted a proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told journalists in Washington that Israel had inked off on the proposal.
She did not provide details of the deal. But the US media reported an official familiar with the proposal has said that the initial phase would include a 60-day ceasefire and humanitarian assistance flowing through UN-run operations.
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Hamas, which controls Gaza, “is studying the amended Witkoff plan with a high sense of responsibility, to achieve the interests of Gaza people and ensure an end to the aggression, a Hamas official said.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed private group which is also endorsed by Israel, expanded its assistance distribution to a third location on Thursday.
Heavily criticized by the UN and other assistance organizations as inadequate and flawed, the group’s operation started this week in the besieged enclave, where the United Nations has said two million people are at the brink of famine after Israel’s eleven-week blockade on aid entering Gaza.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
