Francois Hollande Calls for Gaza Demilitarization
Image by getty images
French President Francois Hollande called for the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and the easing of Gaza’s blockade.
Hollande’s speech Thursday to the French diplomatic corps was the latest sign that the international community plans to press for demilitarization after the latest war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Reports emerged in Lebanese media on Friday that the United States is pressing for the U.N. Security Council to call for such steps.
The terms of this week’s cease-fire “must be strictly, precisely and rigorously implemented, because Gaza must not remain an armed base for Hamas, nor should it be an open prison for its residents” Hollande said. “We must advance toward a progressive lifting of the blockade and a demilitarization of the territory.”
He outlined French proposals that included international supervision of the destruction of tunnels from Gaza into Israel, reopening crossings between Israel and Gaza and Egypt and giving Hamas’ rival, the Palestinian Authority, the means of rebuilding Gaza.
Hamas officials have said they would resist any steps to demilitarize and have said they planned to re-arm.
In Iran, the head of the Basij, the militia best known for brutally repressing protests after the 2009 election, widely seen as rigged, said this week that Iran would arm Palestinians in the West Bank.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
