Macron calls for ceasefire, pledges increased aid to Gaza

French President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas for the first time at the Gaza aid conference in Paris on Thursday, adding that France will increase its financial support to Gaza.

On Thursday, France hosted an international humanitarian conference to try to unblock aid to Gaza, gathering around 80 countries and international organisations.

“In the immediate term, to try to unblock aid to Gaza, we need to work to protect civilians, and to do that, we need a very rapid humanitarian pause, and we need to work towards a ceasefire”, Macron said in his opening speech.

This is the first time since the deadly Hamas attack in Israel on 7 October that Macron has explicitly called for a ceasefire – although no Israeli government officials or senior Arab representatives were present at the conference.

While Macron said that Israel had “the right to defend itself and the duty to protect its people”, he repeated that the Israeli government also had “an eminent responsibility (…) to respect the law and protect civilians”.

“The fight against terrorism can never be without rules”, he continued.

“Civilians must be protected. This is non-negotiable, an immediate necessity” and “a prerequisite for the effectiveness of our fight against terrorists”, he added.

At the start of the war, Macron announced a French aid package of €20 million for Gaza to protect civilians and provide humanitarian assistance.

Now, Paris would “increase this effort to €100 million by 2023,” he added at the conference.

Since the war broke out, France has delivered 17 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza on a military flight via Egypt. Two more flights will deliver an additional 37 tonnes of aid in the coming days.

In his conclusions, Macron called on “all countries present to increase their financial contributions to the Palestinian civilian population via the United Nations”. According to the UN, the population of Gaza and the West Bank needs $1.2 billion in aid before the end of the year.

On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a further €25 million in aid for civilians in Gaza, bringing the EU’s total humanitarian aid to €100 million.

The death toll, mostly civilians, stands at 1,400 on the Israeli side and over 10,000 – according to figures from the Health Ministry in Gaza – on the Palestinian side, many of which are women and children.

(Clara Bauer-Babef | Euractiv.fr)