The killing of over 100 Palestinians in Gaza who were requesting humanitarian relief angered French President Emmanuel Macron, who expressed his outrage on Friday, March 1. He also demanded "truth and justice" over the involvement of Israeli forces in the tragedy according to Reuters.
More than 100 Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers on Thursday while they were waiting for supplies to be delivered, according to Gaza health officials.
Israel claimed the dead had been ran over or trampled and placed the responsibility for the killings on the crowd that encircled the relief vehicles.
On social media platform X president Macron said that "Deep indignation at the images coming from Gaza where civilians have been targeted by Israeli soldiers. I express my strongest condemnation of these shootings and call for truth, justice, and respect for international law,"
He further said that the fighting needed to end immediately and a cease-fire must be implemented.
Foreign minister of France declared on Friday on France inter Radio that Paris will back the UN request for impartial inquiry.
"It is inexcusable and unjustified what happened, and the humanitarian situation has been disastrous for a few weeks now. It has to stop and Israel must be able to hear it, Sejourne told France Inter Radio.
Foreign Minister Sejourne express that "We've taken it a step further; there are riots and people are fighting over food , i have heard the UN Secretary General's request to launch an independent investigation, and I believe that France will support this."
According to Sejourne, "France calls things by their name" and would not apply "double standards" to the Middle East conflict.
"This applies when we designate Hamas as a terrorist group, but we must also call things by their name when there are atrocities in Gaza."
"Then obviously this becomes a matter for the judiciary," he continued, if an inquiry should find that the Israeli killing was a war crime.
