Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Jerusalem, Oct. 24, 2023. Photo: Christophe Ena/Pool via REUTERS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused French President Emmanuel Macron of standing with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and repeating “blood libels” against the Jewish state after Macron castigated Israel’s policy in Gaza.

“Macron has once again chosen to stand with a murderous Islamist terrorist organization and echo its despicable propaganda, accusing Israel of blood libels,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “Israel will not stop and will not surrender.”

The statement added that Israel is fighting “for its very existence following the horrific massacre committed by Hamas against innocent people on Oct. 7, including the murder and kidnapping of dozens of French nationals.”

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the ongoing war on Oct. 7, 2023, when they invaded southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and kidnapped 251 hostages while perpetrating widespread sexual violence and other atrocities. Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza, the neighboring Palestinian enclave ruled by the terrorist group for nearly two decades.

Speaking to French television on Tuesday, Macron said the Israeli government’s blockade of aid into Gaza is “unacceptable” and “shameful.”

“What the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is doing is unacceptable … there is no water, no medicine, the wounded cannot get out, the doctors cannot get in. What he is doing is shameful,” Macron told TF1 television. “We need the United States. President Trump has the levers. I have had tough words with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I got angry, but they [Israel] don’t depend on us, they depend on American weapons.”

Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza aid since early March, when it resumed military operations against Hamas following a two-month ceasefire. Experts and Israeli officials have said that Hamas steals much of the aid to fuel its terrorist operations and sells some of the remainder to Gaza’s civilian population at an increased price. Jerusalem has also said that aid distribution cannot be left to international organizations, which it accuses of allowing Hamas to seize supplies intended for the civilian population.

Netanyahu’s office slammed Macron for lambasting Israel rather than siding with the Middle East’s lone democracy.

“Instead of supporting the Western democratic camp fighting the Islamist terrorist organizations and calling for the release of the hostages, Macron is once again demanding that Israel surrender and reward terrorism,” the statement said.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also lambasted Macron for his comments.

“We remember well what happened to the Jews in France when they could not defend themselves,” he said in a post on X/Twitter, apparently referring to the mass killing of Jews during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II. “President Macron will not preach morality to us. It is expected of those who define themselves as friends of Israel to stand by Israel in its war against the murderous terrorist organization Hamas and the Iranian axis of evil that threaten to destroy the State of Israel — instead of trying to deny it the right to self-defense.”

He added, “The IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] operates at an unsurpassed level of morality in difficult and complex circumstances — certainly more than anything France has done in its past wars.”

The spat between Paris and Jerusalem came after Macron said last month that France is making plans to recognize a Palestinian state and could do so as early as June. Israeli and French Jewish leaders sharply criticized Macron’s announcement, decrying such a decision as a “prize for terrorism and a boost for Hamas.”