In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde published on Saturday, the French Foreign Minister criticized the Israeli authorities, considering them responsible for preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the Gaza Strip.

Stephane Sigournet said, “It is clear that the responsibility for preventing aid from reaching the Gaza Strip is Israeli,” noting that the catastrophic humanitarian situation “leads to indefensible and unjustifiable conditions for which the Israelis bear responsibility.”

France intensified its efforts with the Israeli authorities to open additional crossings and allow trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to enter.

But that did not happen, and “famine increases the terror,” according to what Sigournet, who visited the region a month ago, explained.

The French Foreign Minister's statements come after the tragedy that occurred Thursday, when Israeli fire and a stampede led to the death of 115 people, according to Hamas, during the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, Sigournet called on France Inter radio for an independent investigation to determine what happened.

On Saturday, he saw that there was a “dead end regarding Rafah” in the southern Gaza Strip, where about one and a half million Palestinians, according to the United Nations, are crowded on the closed border with Egypt, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the launch of a ground attack soon on Rafah to defeat the movement in “Its last stronghold.”