Politics: Environmentalists call for the French Navy to be sent to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza

The Greens are asking Emmanuel Macron , in La Tribune on Sunday , to deploy the French Navy to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, believing that "France must be the driving force behind an international coalition to lift the humanitarian blockade."

"If you don't act, you are complicit."

"We request that, given the urgency and gravity of the situation, ships of the French Navy be deployed without delay to the coast of Gaza in order to bring food, medicines and basic necessities," wrote in a column the head of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier , the three leaders of the Green parliamentary groups ( Cyrielle Chatelain in the Assembly, Guillaume Gontard in the Senate, David Cormand in the European Parliament ), as well as the deputy national secretary, Aïssa Ghalmi.

They solemnly appeal to President Emmanuel Macron: "If you do not act, you are an accomplice. An accomplice to genocide, to starving children, to thousands of deaths due to lack of care, to a massacred people. Your inaction will go down in history."

"Take a historic decision that will end the illegal blockade and stop the ongoing genocide," they urged him, stressing that "if we don't act by then, the threat is that by September the Gazans will have been decimated."

France as the “engine of an international coalition”

Recalling that in November 2023, France sent the Tonnerre and the Dixmude, two amphibious helicopter carriers, to relieve the burden on Gaza hospitals, the authors of the article call for this operation to be "repeated and expanded."

"France must be the driving force behind an international coalition to lift the humanitarian blockade," the Greens continue, arguing that the parachuting of food aid, implemented by Paris since Friday and which plans to drop 40 tonnes on Gaza , "is an ineffective and dangerous method." They also ask it not to wait until September to recognize the State of Palestine , as the French head of state has promised.

"Assume the initiative to form a coalition capable of putting an end to the humanitarian tragedy. Assume the demand for sanctions against the Israeli government, to stop the delivery of arms and to demand the termination of Europe's association agreement with Israel," they continue.

After nearly 22 months of a devastating war sparked by a bloody Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Gaza Strip is threatened with "widespread famine" according to the UN and is totally dependent on humanitarian aid.