Israeli airstrikes pound Gaza as Macron, Netanyahu trade barbs
Israeli airstrikes pounded northern and southern Gaza on Wednesday, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was “no way” he would halt Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory before Hamas is defeated.
The strikes came after Hamas on Monday released an Israeli-American hostage.
Israel’s military refused to comment on the strikes. It warned Jabaliya residents to evacuate late Tuesday, citing terrorist infrastructure in the area, including rocket launchers.
In comments released by Netanyahu’s office Tuesday, the prime minister said Israeli forces were days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission … It means destroying Hamas.”
The war began when Hamas-led terrorists killed 1,200 people in a 2023 intrusion into southern Israel. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 52,928 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants.
Israeli media reported that one target in a strike on a hospital in Khan Younis on Tuesday was Mohammed Sinwar, younger brother of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces last October. The military would not comment beyond saying it had targeted a Hamas “command and control center” which it said was located beneath the European Hospital.
Mohammed Sinwar is believed to be Hamas’ top military leader in Gaza. Israel has tried to assassinate him multiple times over the past decades.
French President Emmanuel Macron strongly denounced Netanyahu’s decision to block aid as “a disgrace” as he endorsed the Israeli government’s right to defend itself from Hamas terrorists.
“I say it forcefully, what Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is doing today is unacceptable,” Macron said Tuesday evening on TF1 national television. “There’s no medicine. We can’t get the wounded out. Doctors can’t get in.”
Macron, who visited injured Palestinians in Egypt last month, called for the reopening of the Gaza border to humanitarian convoys. “Then, yes, we must fight to demilitarize Hamas, free the hostages and build a political solution,” he said.
Netanyahu retorted that Macron was “echoing the false propaganda” of an extremist terrorist organization.
Israel has embraced a U.S. plan for a phased resumption of food distribution to Gaza’s civilians that would stop Hamas seizing supplies. It is unclear, though, when the program will start or who will be in charge of implementation.
Asked Tuesday when aid would get into Gaza, a spokesperson for the State Department repeated Israel’s stance that Hamas “bears responsibility” for the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer commented on Gaza on Wednesday, saying the situation is “intolerable and getting worse.”
“We are working with other leaders urgently to bring about rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” he said, adding that the release of Hamas-held hostages is also a priority.
The United Nations says the number of meals that charity kitchens are providing in Gaza has plunged to around 260,000 under Israel’s blockade, down from more than 1 million a day in late April.
Israel says the blockade is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release remaining hostages and disarm. Israeli officials have asserted there is enough food in the territory after a surge in aid entered during a recent two-month ceasefire.
