On Sunday, December 3, the Elysée Palace announced that French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would talk by telephone again in the next few days. In the meantime, echoing the American position, the French president has made no secret of his concern about the "war aims" pursued by the head of the Israeli government, as the army attacks the south of the Gaza Strip in addition to the north, to "eliminate" Hamas.
"We're at a point where the Israeli authorities are going to have to define more precisely their objective and the desired end state," said Macron from Dubai on Saturday. Shortly after the truce was broken, the French president made use of his visit to COP28, the United Nations climate conference, to meet various Arab leaders, including his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.
"The total destruction of Hamas, what does that mean and does anyone think it's possible? If it is, the war will last 10 years," he warned, before heading off to Doha to dine with the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and to talk about the remaining hostages (four French men are still reported "missing"), a possible new truce, and what the "day after" Israeli operations might look like.
Macron's warnings echoed those issued by the United States on the fate of civilians and the impact of the fighting on public opinion in the region. "Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," said US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday, after she too had met Arab leaders on the sidelines of COP28. "Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "We've also been very clear about the imperative of doing that in a way that puts a premium on protecting civilians and making sure that humanitarian assistance gets to those who need it." Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin even warned that Israel risked a "strategic defeat": "If you drive [civilian populations] into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat," he warned.
Macron said as much: "The right response to a terrorist group is not to wipe out an entire territory or bomb civilian infrastructures," he insisted from Dubai. "There can be no lasting security for Israel in the region if its security comes at the cost of Palestinian lives, and thus the resentment of all public opinion in the region."
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