The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has denounced “odious and unacceptable blackmail” by Hamas after the Palestinian militant group threatened to execute some of the more than 100 hostages it abducted during its attack on southern Israel.
Macron was speaking alongside the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who asserted the “right of Israel to defend itself”.
Macron said: “I hope the next days will allow Israel to put an end to any attack against Israel’s territory and free the hostages.” His timetable is probably shorter than the one mapped out by Israel itself, and may reflect fears in France that Israel’s reaction to the bloody assault by Hamas that has left 900 Israelis dead could lead to a regional conflagration.
“The blackmail by Hamas after its terrorist acts is odious and unacceptable,” Macron told reporters on a visit to Germany.
Macron also condemned the praise of Hamas by the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, and said he was still waiting for intelligence on whether Iran was directly involved in the attack. “I have no comment to make about the direct involvement of Iran for which we have no formal proof, but it’s clear that the public comments by Iranian authorities were unacceptable … and that it is likely that Hamas was offered help,” Macron said.
He also confirmed France did not favour plans to end payments to Palestine by the EU, a proposal unilaterally announced by Olivér Várhelyi, the Hungarian EU commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, but then partly retracted after complaints by a group of countries, as well as the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.
Várhelyi had announced the EU was suspending €691m (£597m) in aid pending a review of EU support for Palestinians.
Macron said: “One must not confuse the fight against terrorism with the most essential humanitarian rights to support the civilian population.” Macron is on a two-day visit to Germany that is likely to focus on the EU response to the migration crisis and Ukraine.
The Hungarian commissioner, an appointee of the president, Viktor Orbán, is strongly pro-Israel and has previously held up aid to Palestine amid controversy over anti-Israeli sentiments in Palestinian textbooks.
The EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the crisis more broadly at an emergency meeting in Muscat, Oman, where a large number of EU foreign ministers are attending a regular meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, and his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, have been invited to participate in the EU meeting that will take the form of hybrid video and in-person talks.
Last year, France contributed €95m in aid to the Palestinians in Hamas-controlled Gaza, annexed East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank run by the Palestinian Authority, and refugee camps in neighbouring countries.
“This aid is focused on supporting the Palestinian populations, in water, health, food security and education,” the French ministry said.
Distributed through the UN, it “directly benefits the Palestinian people” and is “fully in line with the engagements of France”, the ministry added.
France said the review would apply only to the development funding budget, not to the separate EU humanitarian aid budget for Palestinians.
The Spanish acting foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, also said on Tuesday that cooperation with the Palestinians must continue. The EU has long had a no-contact policy with Hamas, which it has labelled as a terrorist organisation.
Albarres said: “This cooperation must continue; we cannot confuse Hamas, which is in the list of EU’s terrorist groups, with the Palestinian population, or the Palestinian Authority or the United Nation’s organisations on the ground.”
The EU has been hamstrung for years in developing a significant independent foreign policy on the Palestinian question due to internal divisions. In an attempt to start to make an impact, the EU in conjunction with three Arab states held a meeting on the margins of the UN general assembly in September, setting out a plan for a Middle East peace day.
According to a parliamentary question from the German MP Moritz Körner to the EU Commission, the EU has transferred almost €8.5bn to the Palestinian territories over the past three decades and now pays €691m annually in addition to the bilateral transfers from the member states.
