Killing of Palestinian medics ‘must mark a turning point’: ICRC
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s sub-delegation in Gaza says the organisation is “pained and angered” by the recent killing of Palestinian medics in Gaza.
“Their killing is a stark reminder of how dangerous Gaza is for civilians, and for humanitarian workers who risk everything to save lives,” Adrian Zimmermann said in a statement shared on social media.
The statement did not mention Israel directly.
Last month, Israeli forces killed 15 medical and humanitarian aid workers in Rafah as they were travelling in a convoy of ambulances to assist people wounded in an earlier attack.
The Israeli army prevented search teams from accessing the area for several days. The bodies of 14 of the workers were later discovered in a mass grave, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
The killing of first responders is a stark reminder of how dangerous Gaza is for civilians, and for humanitarian workers who risk everything to save lives.
This incident must mark a turning point. pic.twitter.com/r4dbEUrr5T
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) April 9, 2025
‘The international community has miserably failed Palestinians’: Public policy professor
Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says Israel has become more emboldened to complete its “ethnic cleansing project” against Palestinians.
Qarmout told Al Jazeera that this is because Israel senses “an indifference” from the world.
“The world has become used now to these images and scenes: burned kids, burned journalists, people dying under the rubble, genocide in Gaza, displacement in the West Bank. It got normalised,” he explained.
“With this indifference and lack of action, of course this settler-colonial project will increase its speed. Sadly, that’s where we are now. The international community has miserably failed Palestinians.”
Macron says France could recognise Palestinian state by June
France’s President Macron said the country will move towards recognising the State of Palestine.
“We’re fighting for Gaza, the return of peace and security, humanitarian [aid] and a political solution. We must move towards recognition – and so in the coming months, we will,” Macron said during an interview with France 5 programme, C a vous.
He said recognition of Palestine could also help ensure the recognition of Israel’s “right to exist” and regional security.
An official announcement of “reciprocal recognition” could be made in June, when France co-chairs an international conference on Palestine with Saudi Arabia in New York, Macron said.
Israel hits back at France for recognising Palestinian state
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has expressed the country’s strong opposition in reaction to Macron’s suggestion that France could recognise a sovereign Palestinian state by June.
“A unilateral recognition of a fictional Palestinian state, by any country, in the reality that we all know, will be a prize for terror and a boost for Hamas,” he wrote on X. “These kind of actions will not bring peace, security and stability in our region closer – but the opposite: they only push them further away.”
Close to 150 member states of the UN recognise Palestinian statehood, but major Western powers and allies like US, UK, France, Germany and Japan have not.
Correction: Western colonial powers
