Macron’s call for a ceasefire receives a defiant response from Israeli Netanyahu

1. Emmanuel Macron said there was “no justification” for bombing civilians and that the deaths aroused “resentment.” “These children, these women, and these elderly people were bombed and killed,” Macron said during an interview with the BBC.

2. He said: “It is very important for all of us because of our principles, because we are democrats. It is important in the medium to long term and also for the security of Israel itself, that we realize that the lives of all people matter.”

3. Ruling out a ceasefire, Netanyahu said, “A ceasefire with Hamas means surrender.” He said that responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas and not with Israel.

4. Netanyahu stressed that Israel does not plan to reoccupy the Palestinian territories, but seeks to give them a better future. He added: “The poor and besieged region must be demilitarized and demilitarized and rebuilt.”

5. The war in the densely populated, virtually closed coastal region has sparked repeated calls for a ceasefire to protect civilian lives and allow more humanitarian aid to enter.

6. Violent fighting broke out between Hamas and Israeli forces near Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza. Relief organization Doctors Without Borders said it was “deeply concerned” about the safety of patients and medical staff at Al Shifa Hospital. The Israeli army repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals, especially Al-Shifa Hospital, to coordinate its attacks.

7. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the UN Security Council that amid the fighting, Gaza’s health system was “on its knees.”

8. “Overstretched, operating with meager supplies and increasingly unsafe, Gaza’s healthcare system has reached the point of no return,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

9. Fighting has raged in Gaza for more than a month following a shocking attack by Hamas on October 7 that killed more than 1,200 people and took 239 hostage. The retaliatory aerial bombardment and ground offensive killed more than 10,800 people in Gaza, most of them civilians and many of them children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

10. The conflict has also raised regional tensions, with cross-border exchanges between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen announced they had fired “ballistic missiles” into southern Israel. Saudi Arabia is hosting Arab leaders and the Iranian president at a summit this weekend in emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

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