Mark Carney, Keir Starmer, and Emmanuel Macron, the leaders of Canada, the United Kingdom, and France, respectively, have just released a joint statement about the situation in Gaza.
The statement opens with Carney, Starmer, and Macron condemning Israel’s methods of warfare as cruel and inhumane: “We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable. Yesterday’s announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate.”
In the statement, the three leaders request that Israel ceases military operation in Gaza immediately and allows the region to receive humanitarian aid from the UN, something which the UN claims that Netanyahu has been attempting to obstruct since the beginning of this saga of the conflict.
The statement from Carney, Starmer, and Macron continues, strongly condemning Hamas for their actions on October 7, but asserting that at this point, they believe Israel’s response to be unjustified and a disproportionately cruel occupation. The leaders also assert that Israel’s threats to relocate Palestinians is entirely unjust and breaks several international laws, specifically criticizing the language used by Israeli officials.
The statement goes onto say that if Israel continues its military offensive and continues to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, Carney, Starmer, and Macron will take further “concrete action” against Israel. This comes after news that Macron was preparing for France to recognize Palestinian statehood, and also begs the question of Carney and Starmer doing the same in their respective nations, something which is partially confirmed in the statement’s closing paragraph:
“We affirm the important role of the High-level Two-State Solution Conference at the UN in June in building international consensus around this aim. And we are committed to recognizing a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end.”
Carney, Starmer, and Macron also make it clear in the statement that they support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, claiming that they support the efforts by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States to make this ceasefire happen. The entire statement can be read here.
Netanyahu’s Response to the Leaders’ Statement on Gaza
On Twitter, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, released a short assertion responding to what was said by Carney, Starmer, and Macron in their joint statement.
In Netanyahu’s statement, he refutes the claims made by the three leaders, claiming that the war in Gaza is a defensive war for Israel, and that ending the war would invite Hamas to commit more atrocities like the October 7 incident. Netanyahu justifies this by claiming that the war begun on October 7, with the implication that this means that everything Israel has done since then is in defense rather than offense.
Netanyahu goes onto say that he agrees with President Trump’s vision for an end to the war, with a focus on demilitarization in Gaza, an unconditional release of all hostages still held by Hamas, and if all of Hamas’ leaders are exiled. Netanyahu ends the statement by claiming that the conflict in Gaza is a “war of civilization over barbarism.”
Much of Netanyahu’s statement can be fact-checked and refuted by neutral sources, namely in the standard of United Nations international law as referenced by Carney, Starmer, and Macron in their statement. The UN has released numerous statements claiming that Israel is not allowed to block humanitarian aid under international law as they have been doing. Furthermore, as mentioned by Carney, Starmer, and Macron in the statement, the Palestinian Authority has already agreed with many parties on a plan for a ceasefire, something which only Israel has held out on.
As the situation unfolds, only the civilians of these nations are the ones suffering: nearly 2,000 Israelis have died, and a shockingly tragic figure of ~70,000 Palestinians have been killed with another at least 120,000 injured.
