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“The analysis that France’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine in September explains the rise in antisemitic violence in France is erroneous, abject, and will not go unanswered,” Macron’s office said in a statement.
“The current period calls for seriousness and responsibility, not generalisation and manipulation.”
The row between the leaders comes as the Israel Defence Forces move to take control of Gaza City, the most populous part of the Palestinian enclave, in a military operation strongly criticised by France, Australia and other countries.
Hours after he denounced Netanyahu for his letter, Macron stepped up his criticism of the IDF operation and spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the opposition to the Israeli policy.
“The military offensive in Gaza that Israel is preparing can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war,” Macron said after those talks.
He called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, the large-scale delivery of aid to people of Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and the strengthening of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.
Macron will co-chair a meeting at the UN in September with Saudi Arabia to seek a political solution that includes recognising a Palestinian state, a future fiercely opposed by Netanyahu and a majority of Israeli voters.
Macron said the political solution was the “only credible way forward” for both sides of the Gaza conflict. “No to war. Yes to peace and security for all,” he wrote on social media.
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Netanyahu kept up his criticism of national leaders who plan to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN, slamming British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a podcast released on Wednesday in the UK.
“The standard that is being applied is not merely wrong, it’s just downright dangerous. Because you’re really rewarding these monstrous terrorists with the greatest prize and that’s because of weakness,” he said.
Netanyahu told the Triggernometry podcast that Britain would not give statehood to its enemies if it had endured an attack like the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“Would you say, ‘Oh, well, we should give our attackers a state right next to London?’ Of course not,” he said.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday that it would call up 60,000 reservists ahead of an expanded military operation in Gaza City, where many Palestinians have chosen to stay despite the danger, as seeking safety seems increasingly futile amid the growing humanitarian crisis.
Calling up extra military reservists is part of a plan Defence Minister Israel Katz approved to begin a new phase of operations in some of Gaza’s most densely populated areas, the military said.
An Israeli tank moves through an area near the Israeli-Gaza border on Wednesday.Credit: AP
The plan, which is expected to receive the chief of staff’s final approval in the coming days, also includes extending the service of 20,000 additional reservists who are already on active duty.
An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, told the Associated Press that troops would operate in parts of Gaza City where they haven’t been deployed yet and where Israel believes Hamas is still active.
Israeli troops in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City and Jabaliya, a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, are already preparing the groundwork for the expanded operation, which could begin within days.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when gunmen led by Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities near the border, killing some 1200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages including children into Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground war in Gaza since then, according to Gaza health officials, who do not say how many were militants but have said most of those killed have been women and children.
Hamas has accepted a proposal put forward by Arab mediators for a 60-day ceasefire that would involve releasing some of the remaining hostages and freeing Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Israeli government, which has said all the 50 remaining hostages must be released at once, is studying the proposal. Israeli authorities believe that 20 hostages are still alive.
Separately, Israel gave final approval on Wednesday for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank that would effectively cut the territory in two, and that Palestinians and rights groups say could destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state.
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Settlement development in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to US pressure during previous administrations. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a former settler leader, cast the approval as a rebuke to Western countries that announced their plans to recognise a Palestinian state in recent weeks.
“The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,” he said on Wednesday. “Every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea.”
With AP, Reuters
