France has banned Israeli companies from participating in this year’s annual Eurosatory arms and defense industry exhibition in Villepinte near Paris next month to protest the IDF’s military operation in Rafah, the event’s organizers and the French Defense Ministry said on Friday.
“Following a decision by government authorities, there will not be an Israeli stand at the Eurosatory 2024 salon,” a spokesperson for the organizers said via email. Israel has typically participated in the annual event.The Defense Ministry said that “conditions are no longer met to host Israeli companies at the show at a time when the president is calling for Israel to cease operations in Rafah.”
Frustration over Gaza war
This past week, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged” over an Israeli airstrike on Sunday that triggered a fire killing 45 people in a tent camp in Rafah and prompted an outcry from global leaders.
The IDF has said that the “targeted strike in Rafah, 1.7 km. from the humanitarian area, used precise munitions carrying 34 kg. of explosives to eliminate two senior Hamas terrorists.”It added that it is exploring the possibility that shrapnel from the strike set off a “secondary explosion from a Hamas munitions warehouse near the civilian compound and over 100 meters away from the strike site,” which may have caused the fire that claimed 45 lives.The international community, however, has not been assuaged by that explanation as the incident exemplifies for them why they believe the IDF should not be conducting a military operation in an area with a high concentration of civilians.Some 1.3 million Palestinians had been in the Rafah area at the start of the month, but many of them had fled there in the early part of the war to avoid bombing in the north. Once Israel began what it has described as a limited campaign in Rafah, close to a million left the area.Algeria and France are drafting UN Security Council resolutions expected to call for a ceasefire and a halt to the Rafah operation.The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling last week, whose broad language allowed those who oppose the Rafah operation to view it as a call on Israel to stop its military activity there, while Israel and its supporters understood it to mean it could continue with its targeted campaign.Israel has insisted that it must operate in Rafah to destroy the last remaining Hamas battalions there. It has in the last days seized tactical control of the strategic Philadelphi Corridor. The IDF has also uncovered tunnels Hamas used to smuggle weapons from nearby Egypt into Gaza. In addition, it believes that hostages are held in Rafah.
Minister Benny Gantz, spoke on Friday evening with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal about the decision to ban Israel from the arms fair, emphasized that the decision ultimately rewards terror, and asked that France re-consider the decision, according to a statement from his office.
Reuters contributed to this report.