On a solidarity visit to Israel following the October 7 assaults, French President Emmanuel Macron demanded on Tuesday that an international coalition fighting the Islamic State group include Hamas, the militant group based in Gaza.
In addition, Macron stated that the Middle East peace process needed a “decisive relaunch” in the wake of discussions with Israeli officials. Israel’s army is preparing for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip with the stated goal of overthrowing Hamas.
Macron said the Global Coalition against Daesh, or the Islamic State group (IS), “should also fight against Hamas”.
The French president said he had proposed this in talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to other “international partners”.
“We should build a regional and international coalition to battle against terrorist groups that threaten us all,” he told a joint news conference with Netanyahu.
Macron’s plan “draws inspiration from the experience of the Global Coalition against Daesh and seeing what aspects can be replicated against Hamas,” according to a source at Elysee Palace.
86 “members” of the coalition, which includes the Arab League and the European Union, are listed as having joined the alliance since its establishment in 2014.
While its main objective has been to combat IS in Syria and Iraq, other goals include stopping the jihadists’ access to finance, intelligence sharing, and support for numerous nations, including Iraqi forces’ training.
Following strikes that, according to Israel, claimed 1,400 lives, the majority of them civilians, Macron was the most recent in a line of prominent Westerners to express support for Israel’s retaliation against the Palestinian militant group.
The Hamas government says 5,791 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of the Palestinian enclave, also mainly civilians. Israel says that its hundreds of air raids each day aim for Hamas leaders and military targets.
