Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused French President Emmanuel Macron of standing with Hamas against Israel and of echoing “blood libels” against the Jewish state, a day after the French leader’s strong criticism of Israeli policy in Gaza, furthering fracturing the already strained relationship between Jerusalem and Paris.
“Macron has once again chosen to side with a murderous Islamist terrorist organization and echo its despicable propaganda, accusing Israel of blood libels,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The PMO added that Israel is fighting “for its very existence following the horrific massacre committed by Hamas against innocent people on October 7, including the murder and kidnapping of dozens of French nationals.”
Hitting back at Macron’s comments from a day earlier, the statement continued: “Instead of supporting the Western democratic camp fighting the Islamist terrorist organizations and calling for the release of the hostages, Macron is once again demanding that Israel surrender and reward terrorism.”
Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister is “determined to accomplish all of Israel’s war goals, including the release of all our hostages, destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities and ensuring that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz also hit back against Macron on Wednesday, referencing France’s decision to collaborate with Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.
“We remember well what happened to Jews in France when they couldn’t defend themselves. President Macron should not lecture us on morality,” Katz said in a statement.
Katz added that he would expect “someone who considers himself a friend of Israel to stand by Israel in its war against the murderous terrorist organization Hamas and the Iranian axis of evil.”
The defense minister said the IDF “operates with the highest level of morality under extremely difficult and complex circumstances — certainly more than anything France has done in its past wars.”
Speaking to French television on Tuesday, Macron said the Israeli government’s withholding of aid to Gaza is “shameful” and suggested that US President Donald Trump should threaten a weapons embargo in order to pressure Netanyahu.
“What the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is doing is unacceptable… there is no water, no medicine, the wounded cannot get out, the doctors cannot get in. What he is doing is shameful,” Macron told TF1 television.
“We need the United States. President Trump has the levers. I have had tough words with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I got angry, but they [Israel] don’t depend on us, they depend on American weapons,” he added.
Israel has effectively sealed off the Gaza Strip since early March, when it resumed its military campaign against Hamas following the collapse of a hostage release and ceasefire deal during which thousands of aid trucks entered the enclave.
Israel has said that the Hamas terror group stole much of the aid entering the territory, using it to supply its members and maintain control over the population, and therefore Israel won’t allow aid in until it puts in place a system giving it control over the distribution. Jerusalem also justifies the aid blockade as a necessary tool to pressure Hamas to release the 58 hostages still being held in the Strip.
Macron emphasized on Tuesday that he had visited the border between Egypt and Gaza earlier this year, where he saw that “all the aid that France and other countries deliver” is “blocked by the Israelis.”
“This is an unacceptable humanitarian tragedy,” he said. He noted, though ,that “it is not up to a president of the republic to say ‘this is a genocide’ but rather to historians.”
A global food-security analysis organization assessed on Monday that the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine in the coming five months due to Israel’s ongoing blockade.
Israel said in response that “even according to the IPC’s own analysis,” there is currently no famine in Gaza, and noted that previous IPC projections about impending famine have “repeatedly failed to materialize.”
While Macron visited Israel in October 2023 to express support for Israel after the Hamas attack, France has increasingly pressed Israel to end the war in Gaza, and the relationship has became strained amid growing French criticism.
Last year, Netanyahu and Macron exchanged barbs after the French leader reportedly told his cabinet that “Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN.” The Israeli leader hit back that “it was not the UN resolution that established the State of Israel, but rather the victory achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors — including from the Vichy regime in France.”
And last month, Macron said that France would recognize a Palestinian state within months, which Netanyahu denounced as a “huge prize for terror.” The prime minister’s often incendiary son, Yair Netanyahu, responded to Macron on X by writing “Screw you!” after which his father said that while his son was entitled to his “personal opinion,” the tone he used was “unacceptable to me.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.