Macron says Hamas attack on Israel was ‘biggest anti-Semitic massacre of our century’

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday described the October 7th attack by Hamas on Israel as the "biggest anti-Semitic massacre of our century" as he hosted a ceremony paying tribute to the French victims.

Published: 7 February 2024 14:01 CET

Macron says Hamas attack on Israel was 'biggest anti-Semitic massacre of our century'

French President Emmanuel Macron (C) attends a ceremony to pay tribute to the 42 French citizens killed and to all the victims of the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7th. Photo by GONZALO FUENTES / POOL / AFP

He described the attack by the Palestinian militant group as “barbarism… which is fed by anti-Semitism and propagates it”, vowing also not to give in to “rampant and uninhibited anti-Semitism”.

The ceremony at Les Invalides memorial complex in Paris paid tribute to the 42 French citizens killed in the attack on Israel by Hamas and the three others still missing, believed to be held hostage.

Macron said France would work “every day” for the release of the remaining French hostages. “Their empty chairs are there,” he said at the ceremony.

“Nothing can justify or excuse terrorism,” he said.

The French presidency has also indicated it will provide an opportunity to remember French victims of Israel’s bombardments of the Gaza Strip, but has not given details on the format.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war started with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7th, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died.

Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and launched air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,585 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

“All lives are equal, are invaluable in the eyes of France,” said Macron, describing war as a “tornado of suffering”.

He also vowed that France would “never allow the spirit of revenge to prosper” and that “in these challenges nothing should divide us”.

He said that France would do everything to “respond to the aspirations of peace and security for everyone in the Middle East”.

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“I don’t believe in the model… which would involve finding third countries on the African continent or elsewhere where we’d send people who arrive on our soil illegally, who don’t come from these countries,” Macron said.

“We’re creating a geopolitics of cynicism which betrays our values and will build new dependencies, and which will prove completely ineffective,” he added in a wide-ranging speech on the future of the European Union at Paris’ Sorbonne University.

British MPs on Tuesday passed a law providing for undocumented asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed and where they would stay if the claims succeed.

The law is a flagship policy for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which badly lags the opposition Labour party in the polls with an election expected within months.

Britain pays Paris to support policing of France’s northern coast, aimed at preventing migrants from setting off for perilous crossings in small boats.

Five people, including one child, were killed in an attempted crossing Tuesday, bringing the toll on the route so far this year to 15 – already higher than the 12 deaths in 2023.

But Macron had warm words for London when he praised the two NATO allies’ bilateral military cooperation, which endured through the contentious years of Britain’s departure from the EU.

“The British are deep natural allies (for France) and the treaties that bind us together… lay a solid foundation,” he said.

“We have to follow them up and strengthen them, because Brexit has not affected this relationship,” Macron added.

The president also said France should seek similar “partnerships” with fellow EU members.