Netanyahu rejected threats from London, Ottawa and Paris to take action over Gaza

On May 20, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the demands of French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as the Prime Ministers of Canada and Britain, Mark Carney and Keir Starmer, to cease hostilities in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli leader said that the Jewish state will not give up self-defense and intends to achieve a "complete victory" in the Palestinian enclave.

In the corresponding collective document of the representatives of the heads of state, which was published on May 19 by the press service of the Elysee Palace, Macron, Carney and Starmer criticized the Israeli government for "odious statements", opposing the resumption of hostilities by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the region. They said they would not "quietly observe" what was happening in Gaza, and threatened "concrete measures" against Israel in response to its actions.

"Demanding that Israel end its defensive war for our survival before the Hamas terrorists on our borders [are] destroyed, and advocating the creation of a Palestinian state, the leaders of London, Ottawa and Paris offer a great reward for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 and invite more such atrocities," he said. The Prime Minister of Israel commented on this statement on his page on the social network X (ex. Twitter).

Netanyahu also noted that Israel supports the plan to resolve the conflict proposed by US President Donald Trump, one of the points of which was to ensure the so-called voluntary emigration of a significant part of Gazans to other countries. Another condition for ending the escalation will be, as the Israeli Prime Minister recalled, the release of all Israeli hostages, followed by the laying down of arms by Hamas.

"The war could end tomorrow if the remaining hostages are released, Hamas lays down its arms, its bloody leaders are expelled, and Gaza is demilitarized. No country would agree to anything less, and Israel certainly would not agree," Netanyahu concluded.

Painful efforts: medical facilities in Gaza cannot cope with the flow of wounded

Meanwhile, Israel is planning a new military operation.

Grigory Lukyanov, a senior lecturer at the Higher School of Economics and a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia on May 19 that Israel had decided to expand its operation in Gaza. The expert stated that the Israeli leadership seeks to eliminate the Hamas movement as a political or any other association in order to prevent it from participating in the negotiation process.