6 minWorld
Israel and Huckabee Rebuke Macron Over Hamas Remarks as France Clarifies Translation
French President Emmanuel Macron's UN General Assembly remarks about Hamas in the West Bank drew sharp pushback from Israeli officials and the US ambassador to Israel, prompting France to clarify that he meant Hamas does not govern the territory.
French President Emmanuel Macron faced sharp criticism from Israeli officials and the U.S. ambassador to Israel after remarks at the United Nations General Assembly were translated as saying Hamas «was never active in the West Bank,» prompting France to clarify that he meant the group does not govern the territory.
The dispute unfolded as Gaza dominated the opening day of the UN General Assembly, with world leaders accusing Israel of displacing Palestinians and undermining peace prospects despite a ceasefire. Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon challenged Macron's claim directly, writing on X that the French president had asserted from the UN podium that Hamas has «never been active» in Judea and Samaria, the Israeli term for the West Bank.
Danon noted that just two days earlier a French citizen had been murdered there, adding: «Mr. President, Emmanuel Macron, do your homework before lecturing Israel. Check the facts.»
Asked to clarify Macron's remarks, a French Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: «The president meant to say that Hamas does not govern the West Bank. His remarks should therefore not be misinterpreted.»
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also weighed in, reposting a statement from Israel's Minister of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli. Huckabee said it was «hard to imagine a more out of touch with reality speech than Macron at UN,» adding that Chikli had corrected the record and that «Hamas is an evil scourge, and they have killed innocent American citizens.»
Chikli's post noted that since 1990, Hamas has carried out more than 80 lethal terrorist attacks originating in or directed from Judea and Samaria, murdering more than 350 Israeli civilians.
Macron also accused Israel of violating Palestinian rights in the West Bank and undermining the sovereignty of neighboring Lebanon, where he said villages in the south were being «razed.» He questioned the credibility of the international community's recognition of Palestinian statehood if it failed to act on the situation in Gaza, saying «some claim that peace has been achieved» while calling the situation «shameful.»
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in his final address to the General Assembly as secretary-general, criticized Israel's response in Gaza, describing it as «a scale of killing and destruction unlike anything I have witnessed in all my years as Secretary-General.» He said that amid the turmoil engulfing the region, «we must not lose sight of the devastating situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.»
Guterres also lamented the ongoing conflict in Sudan, saying the war-torn East African nation is a place the «world looks away» from wrongly. Yet his decision to single out Gaza as the worst devastation he had witnessed raised questions about the international community's uneven attention to two of the world's deadliest conflicts. Approximately 72,000 Palestinians have been reported killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, compared with an estimated 150,000 people killed in Sudan's civil war. Many of those killed in Gaza include terrorists.
King Abdullah II of Jordan, a regional U.S. ally whose country signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1994, accused Jerusalem of «war crimes.» He said that from Lebanon to Yemen to Sudan, protracted conflict is deepening humanitarian suffering, and warned that a crisis in the region affects ordinary families from Mumbai to Madrid to Minnesota.
Abdullah said Jordanian field hospitals had been targeted during the first 300 days of the «so-called ceasefire» and lamented the deaths of Palestinian children. He praised President Donald Trump for «pushing hard for peace» while faulting Israel for «moving the goalposts» and allegedly destroying civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
«The question is, is this the behavior of a democratic state governed by law?» Abdullah said. «What is unfolding across the West Bank is not a series of isolated acts. It is elements of a single policy to compel an entire population to leave their land. And there is a name for that: forced displacement. And that is a war crime.» He also accused Israel of harboring territorial ambitions in Syria and called on the international community to act.
Just before Abdullah spoke, Trump offered a scathing counterweight to the criticism directed at Israel. «Iran will never have a nuclear weapon» was a mantra repeated by Trump from the dais, as he noted that the Khamenei regime had celebrated Oct. 7 as a «service to humanity» while murdering thousands of Iranian citizens in recent months.
«Just imagine such a vile regime, wherever empowered to carry out large-scale terror attacks from behind a nuclear shield,» Trump said. «This was the reality we had to confront, the reality that far too many preferred to ignore.»
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