While hunger and devastation ravage Gaza, President Donald Trump subtracted this Friday all importance to the historical decision of his French pair, Emmanuel Macron, to recognize a Palestinian state.
When asked about Macron’s announcement, he just responded from the White House: “He is a good guy, I like it, but that statement has no weight. Nothing will change.”
Trump’s disdain was explicit and, for many, shocking in the context of a humanitarian crisis that has already claimed the lives of almost 60,000 Palestinians and left more than two million people in Gaza to the edge of starvation.
The international community assists, apparently impotent, to the catastrophe. The words of the US president reflect the reigning immobility in the high spheres of Western power against one of the greatest contemporary tragedies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kde5y8wkc7q
The French gesture: between Israeli indignation and American indifference
On Thursday, Macron announced on the social network X that it will formalize the recognition of Palestine in September before the UN General Assembly.
France will be the largest country of the G7 to take that step, following more than 140 already recent European accessions such as those of Spain, Ireland, Norway or Slovenia.
“The urgent today is to end the war in Gaza and save the civilian population,” Macron said. In addition, he remarked that Hamas must demilitarize and gaza, rebuilt.
The Israeli reaction was condemned. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Macron as “rewarding terror” and turning that decision into a “springboard to annihilate Israel.”
Washington, meanwhile, rejected the initiative and in the voice of the head of diplomacy, Marco Rubio, called it “reckless” and useful only for “Hamas’s propaganda.”
Gaza: If you don’t die for bombs, you’re hungry
The situation on the ground is dramatic. According to the latest United Nations reports, one in three gazatis spends whole days without access to food. The presence of the famine does not stop increasing, while hospitals and essential services are precipitated to the collapse of the almost total blocking of the entry of fuels and supplies.
“The search for food should never be a death sentence,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, denouncing attacks on families and children who only seek food under pumps and shots.
More than a thousand Palestinians have died just trying to get food in recent weeks. The UN speaks of “levels of death and destruction without parallel in recent times.”
The images that arrive from schools and tents bombarded, malnourished children and calcined bodies, even shiver the veteran humanitarian workers.
“The humanitarian system is being denied minimal operating conditions, denied the space to act, denied their security to save lives,” Guterres summarized before the Security Council.
Gaza’s health authorities reported nine other deaths due to hunger and malnutrition in the last 24 hours, so that the total number of related deaths rises to 122 since the current conflict began in October 2023.
In turn, Civil Defense in Gaza reported that at least 23 people died Friday in new Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory and another five died in a nighttime attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1by8Ozotkm
Europe Debate, United Kingdom Doubt
While France takes the initiative, other European countries discuss the right time to follow their steps.
Under the pressure of more than a hundred parliamentarians and faced with a growing public outrage, so he described as “atroces” scenes in Gaza, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer admitted that the recognition of the Palestinian State must be an “inescapable step”, but attached to a “broader plan” that guarantees a lasting solution of two states
Starmer, however, has refused to adopt the decision unilaterally, betting on a consensus exit with his closest allies.
By contrast, the Labor and Liberal majority in the British Parliament considers that Palestinian status is an “inviolable right” and demands its immediate recognition.
The international community in the face of a moral crisis
The president of the International Red Cross Committee, Mirjana Spoljaric, summarized in New York the dominant feeling in humanitarian organizations: “There is no excuse for what is happening. Suffering and loss of dignity have overcome all acceptable standards, both legal and moral. This tragedy must end now, immediately and decisively.”
The UN and its agencies warn that the Israeli block is maintained on the entry of food, fuel and essential help. “The help that enters is just a drop in the ocean,” Guterres lamented, claiming an immediate cessation to fire, the release of Israeli hostages and humanitarian access without restrictions.
Uncertain negotiations
The intermittent negotiations for a fire stop, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, have made small advances, but violence persists.
The United States and Israel explore alternatives to free hostages, while Hamas insists on their willingness to negotiate if the offensive ends.
In parallel, dozens of countries demand a forceful response to humanitarian disaster, although, for the moment, symbolic gestures such as Macron seem not to alter the US position.
