Palestinian president tells Macron to stop Israel 'aggression' on Gaza

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told France’s Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that the international community must halt Israel’s “aggression” in the Gaza Strip.

“We urge you, President Macron, to stop this aggression,” Abbas said after the two leaders held talks in Ramallah dominated by the war that has left thousands of civilians dead in Gaza.

The Palestinian leader strongly condemned Israeli air strikes which he said “kill innocent civilians in a barbaric way”.

Abbas said Israel “and the countries that support it are responsible for the conflict”. He added that there should be an “international peace conference” on Gaza.

Macron told reporters that “nothing can justify” the suffering of civilians in the Palestinian territory since the October 7 attacks on Israel.

Earlier in Jerusalem, Macron defended Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas.

The first Western leader to go to the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in the occupied West Bank during the current crisis, Macron said: “There will not be any sustainable peace if there is no recognition of the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to have territory and a state.

“There will be no sustainable peace if there is no clear recognition by the Palestinian people and their authorities of an Israeli state and the importance of its existence and its security,” he added.

Gaza is being bombed by the occupation forces after the resistance group Hamas launched a surprise offensive, breaching Israel’s defence.

Israel has put the strip — home to 2.3 million people — under siege while local authorities reported killings of more than 5,000 Palestinians.

About 40 percent of the 5,087 people killed are children, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said a day earlier, the day when Israel’s army said it carried out more than 300 new air attacks within 24 hours. Palestinian officials said more than 400 people were killed in that period.

Thousands of buildings have been destroyed, and more than one million people displaced in the territory, which has been under siege and largely deprived of water, food and other basic supplies.

Hamas’s attack in southern Israel killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.