Israeli officials reject defense chief’s ‘attacks’ on France

Senior Israeli officials said Friday that comments by the defense minister, who rejected a French initiative to reduce tensions on the Lebanese border over a “hostile policy towards Israel,” do not reflect the government’s position.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday at the G7 summit in Italy that France, the United States and Israel will form a group to de-escalate rapidly growing cross-border violence between the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israeli forces.

However, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on social media platform X that “Israel will not be party to the tripartite framework proposed by France” that last month excluded Israeli defense companies from participating in the fair.

“While fighting a just war, defending our nation, France has adopted a hostile policy towards Israel,” Gallant said, accusing Paris of ignoring attacks on Israelis by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and senior officials in the Foreign Ministry distanced themselves from Gallant’s remarks.

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Asked by AFP whether the comments reflected the government’s position, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said Gallant was speaking in his capacity as defense minister.

Foreign Ministry officials described the remarks as “attacks on France.”

“Apart from existing disagreements between Israel and France, the statements against France are incorrect and inappropriate,” officials said.

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“France actively participated in the defense of Israeli skies and citizens and took part in the April operation to thwart an Iranian missile attack,” they added.

Officials also praised France’s “clear line of condemnation and sanctions against Hamas” since the beginning of the Gaza war, as well as the fight against the “scourge of anti-Semitism.”

Macron’s offer, which he says is similar to Lebanon’s, is aimed at curbing the near-daily exchange of fire between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, that has intensified in recent weeks.

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The clashes began shortly after a Palestinian group’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, which sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

French authorities in May banned Israeli defense companies from exhibiting at a trade fair held later that month near Paris amid global outrage over Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.

According to AFP data based on official Israeli data, Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel killed 1,194 people, mostly civilians.

According to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry, the Israeli retaliatory offensive killed at least 37,266 people in Gaza, most of them civilians.

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