Macron Challenges Trump’s Gaza Peace Claims at UN

French President Emmanuel Macron challenged U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of achieving peace in Gaza on Tuesday, arguing that humanitarian access to the enclave had not improved despite the proclaimed agreement.

Delivering his final address to the United Nations General Assembly before leaving office next year, Macron criticized the portrayal of the Gaza peace plan as a major diplomatic success. Trump had earlier used the same UN podium to praise his administration’s efforts in the conflict.

“Some boast of a supposed peace. But that peace has not reopened humanitarian access for a single second,” Macron said, adding that the situation in Gaza should “shame us all.”

The White House rejected Macron’s criticism. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump had ended the Israel-Hamas war, secured the release of living hostages and the return of deceased hostages’ remains, and was overseeing implementation of his 20-Point Plan for Peace in Gaza.

Macron, who recognized a Palestinian state last September, has faced criticism in France over whether that decision produced meaningful results. Paris has since stepped up pressure over Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, including imposing sanctions and beginning a process aimed at banning products from Israeli settlements.

The French president also warned that developments in the West Bank were increasingly threatening prospects for a viable Palestinian state. He argued that actions violating the sovereignty of Israel’s neighbors would ultimately weaken rather than strengthen Israeli security.

Macron’s remarks came seven months before France’s next presidential election and marked his final UN General Assembly appearance after first addressing the gathering in 2017.

Beyond the Gaza conflict, Macron used the speech to defend multilateral diplomacy and the United Nations. He warned that the international community risked a “return to the law of the jungle,” with power and coercion replacing established international rules.

“We cannot accept the new order of impunity that some would like to build,” Macron said, concluding his address with: “Long Live the United Nations!”