faced with terrorism, Emmanuel Macron advocates a “strong and just response”

2023-10-12 18:37:00

Emmanuel Macron addressed the French this Thursday at 8 p.m. to address the Hamas attack on Israel last Saturday. The head of state indicated “do everything possible (…) to bring back” hostages captured by Hamas “safe and sound in their home”.

“I am thinking of the families this evening. I want to tell them that France is doing everything it can alongside the Israeli authorities and with our partners to bring them back safely to their homes,” he said.

The French president also called on the French to stay “ unis » following the series of attacks in the south of the country which left 13 French dead according to a new report. Others, trying to return to France, are still stuck in Israel, waiting to be confirmed on a flight chartered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Thursday evening, thehe national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office (Pnat) announced that it had opened a preliminary investigation, in particular for assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise, following the Hamas attack. Investigations were also opened for kidnapping and sequestration of people, including minors, in an organized gang and in connection with a terrorist enterprise.

Faced with the risk of escalating tensions:

“Let us not add national fractures to international fractures by illusion or calculation and let us not give in to any form of hatred,” declared Emmanuel Macron.

Lamenting “ an unleashing of absolute cruelty » of Hamas once morest Israel, Emmanuel Macron denounced the “ mistake ” of those who ” confuse the Palestinian cause and the justification of terrorism “. Faced with terrorism, it cannot “ never be a “yes, but” ».

“Strong and fair response”

« Israel experienced the most tragic terrorist attack in its history on Saturday. An entire country was surprised at dawn by gunfire and an invasion as sudden as it was bloody. Hundreds of infants, children, women and men were chased, kidnapped, murdered, taken hostage. Kibbutz massacres. Entire villages decimated. A blind murderous hatred “, listed the head of state, calling on the Jewish state to respond “ strong and fair » once morest Hamas, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Thursday that Hamas would be “crushed”. Israel has received strong support from the United States in the war once morest the Palestinian Islamist movement.

“The only response to terrorism, the only possible one, is always a strong and just response, strong because it is just,” he said. “Israel has the right to defend itself by eliminating terrorist groups, including Hamas, through targeted actions but by preserving civilian populations, because that is the duty of democracy,” he insisted.

Demonstrations in France

The intervention of the Head of State comes as several hundred demonstrators gathered Thursday early evening at Place de la République in Paris in support of the Palestinians, despite the ban on this demonstration, confirmed by administrative justice, observed an AFP journalist. In the center of Rennes, an equally banned gathering brought together around fifty demonstrators, according to an AFP journalist.

In Bordeaux, around a hundred responded to the call of the Girondin Collective for a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis, noted AFP journalists. Unlike the one organized the day before in the same city, this gathering was not prohibited by the prefecture.

The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, ordered the systematic ban on “pro-Palestinian demonstrations, because they are likely to generate disturbances to public order”. The ministry told AFP that “ organizers “ of these demonstrations and “the troublemakers » would be arrested.

In Paris, several hundred people gathered in Place de la République chanting ” Palestine will win “or “Israel assassin, Macron complicit”, carrying Palestinian flags.

“Zionists, Zionists, you are terrorists”protesters intoned.

The monument to the Republic, in the center of the square, has been tagged with “ Free Palestine » in capital letters.

Wiping away some projectiles, the police used a water cannon and tear gas to disperse the gathering, shortly before 7:30 p.m.

Police chief Laurent Nuñez banned this gathering on Tuesday, predicting that it would be “the scene of attitudes, words and gestures, mainly of an anti-Jewish nature, inciting racial hatred and advocating the terrorist attacks perpetrated in recent days in the Middle East.”

Urgently contacted by several associations, the Paris administrative court decided Thursday followingnoon to maintain this ban.

Support for Palestine wants to make its voice heard

The presidents of the AFPS (France Palestine Solidarity Association), Bertrand Heilbronn, and the FTCR (Federation of Tunisians for Citizenship of the Two Shores), Mohammed Ben Saïd, indicated to the AFP that they were not maintaining the call to demonstrate Thursday evening.

More “we are not going to give up”added Mr. Heilbronn. “These demonstrations give a political outlet to an anger that wants to be expressed, it is important that we can carry this voice. »

“It is high time for France to pull itself together a little and move away from this unconditional support for the State of Israel”he added.

For her part, the leader of CAPJPO-Europalestine, Olivia Zemor, told AFP her intention to “leave people” manifest “ if they want to do it.

The toll is growing

As a reminder, en Israel, more than 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians, including more than a hundred in the Beeri kibbutz alone and at least 270 at a rave party near Gaza, according to the authorities.

On the Palestinian side, the death toll from bombings rose Thursday to 1,354 dead, according to Gaza authorities. Hamas said two of its officials were killed in strikes.

(With AFP)