Europe 1 with AFP // Credits: MOHAMMED ABED / AFP 10:00 a.m., March 1, 2024
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs called on Friday for an independent investigation into the death, announced by Hamas, of more than 110 people during a food aid distribution in Gaza after Israeli fire.
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs called on Friday for an independent investigation into the death, announced by Hamas, of more than 110 people during a food aid distribution in Gaza after Israeli fire.
“I want to be very clear today, we will ask for explanations and there will need to be an independent investigation to determine what happened,” Stéphane Séjourné said on France Inter radio.
The minister stressed that there could not be "double standards" in France's reactions.
“France says the things. It says the things when it comes to qualifying Hamas as terrorist. But it must also say the things when atrocities are happening in Gaza,” he commented.
Stéphane Séjourné also stressed that if an investigation were to lead to qualifying these facts as war crimes, “obviously, justice will have to rule”.
He also expressed his indignation at the idea that people were dying of starvation in Gaza.
It’s “unbearable for us.”
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The war was sparked on October 7 by an attack launched by Hamas commandos infiltrated from the neighboring Gaza Strip in southern Israel, which caused the deaths of at least 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to a AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In response, Israel vowed to "annihilate" Hamas and launched a military offensive which left more than 30,000 dead, the vast majority civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.
This war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe among the Palestinian population.