Israel reacts strongly to Emmanuel Macron's criticism at the UN on the West Bank

Israel reacted strongly on Tuesday to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron at the UN, who criticized Israeli actions in the West Bank by affirming that Hamas was not active in this territory where the Palestinian Authority is based. “The grotesque absurdity of Emmanuel Macron’s remarks is staggering,” declared the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to give a speech to the international body on Thursday. “Hamas terrorists carry out attacks against Jews almost every day. They murdered countless Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical name for the West Bank.

Mr. Netanyahu's office cited the shooting death on Sunday, on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, of an Israeli settler in the West Bank, father of six children and who also had French nationality. The Israeli army said it arrested the Palestinian gunman at a hospital and that soldiers then raided his village. A Netanyahu government minister called for his execution under a new law.

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Extremist Israeli settlers frequently attack Palestinians in the West Bank. According to the United Nations, there have been approximately six settler-related violent incidents targeting Palestinians or their property every day until mid-2026.

“Show that shames us all”

In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Emmanuel Macron denounced the humanitarian situation in Gaza, from where Hamas launched the attack on October 7, 2023, the deadliest ever against Israel, as well as Israel's actions in the West Bank. “What is our credibility if we continue to remain inactive in the face of Gaza?”, launched the French president. Before deploring seeing in Gaza a “spectacle that shames us all”, reaffirming that building a two-state solution was the condition for “the security of today and tomorrow for Israel and its people”.

Mr. Netanyahu has poor relations with Mr. Macron, who led an initiative by Western countries at the UN General Assembly last year to recognize a Palestinian state.