5/31/2024–|Last updated: 5/31/202407:37 PM (Mecca time)
The French Ministry of Defense confirmed that Israeli companies were prevented from participating in the Eurosatory exhibition for defense and security industries in Paris, due to Israel’s failure to respond to stopping the military operation in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
A spokesman for the organizers of the Eurosatory exhibition announced the cancellation of the participation of Israeli companies in the exhibition in its current year, by decision of the French authorities.
The spokesman added that there will not be any pavilion for the Israeli defense industry at the Eurosatory 2024 exhibition scheduled for next June 17.
The organizers stated that 74 Israeli arms companies were scheduled to participate in the French military exhibition.
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he was “angry at the Israeli air strike that caused a fire that killed 45 people in a camp in the city of Rafah.”
On Sunday, Israel killed 45 Palestinians and injured dozens, most of them children and women, with an air strike it launched on the tents of displaced people in the Tal al-Sultan area, northwest of Rafah, even though it was among the areas that its army claimed were “safe and possible to move to.”
Israeli anger
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that Minister of the Defense Council, Benny Gantz, expressed in a call with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal his rejection of the decision to prevent Israel from participating in a defense exhibition scheduled to be held next month in Paris.
The authority quoted Gantz as saying that the decision to prevent Israel from participating in the exhibition is considered a “reward for terrorism.”
In turn, the Israeli Walla website said that the decision to prevent Israeli arms companies from attending the Paris exhibition is a blow to the defense industries in Israel.
Since October 7, the Israeli war on Gaza has left more than 117,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
Israel continues the war on Gaza despite orders from the International Court of Justice to immediately stop the ground attack on the city of Rafah (south), and to take temporary measures to prevent acts of “genocide” and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Strip.