Tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron intensified amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, The Times of Israel reported.
On Tuesday, Macron told his Cabinet that Israel was created by a United Nations decision and that Israel cannot disregard U.N. resolutions, provoking a furious response from Netanyahu.
"A reminder to the president of France: Israel was not established by a U.N. resolution, but through the victory achieved in the War of Independence, paid for with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors — including from the Vichy regime in France," Netanyahu said in a statement, Ynet News reported.
"It is also worth noting that in recent decades, the U.N. has passed hundreds of anti-Israel resolutions aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the world's only Jewish state and its right to defend itself."
Macron was referring to U.N. Resolution 1701, which mandates that only the Lebanese army and the U.N. peacekeeping forces known as UNIFIL should operate in southern Lebanon. Recent Israeli fire in the region injured U.N. peacekeepers, prompting 40 countries to condemn the strikes.
Netanyahu has called for the U.N. to remove its 10,000 peacekeepers, including 700 French troops, out of the region, saying Hezbollah is using them as human shields. He also opposed talk of a unilateral cease-fire, saying it wouldn't improve the security situation, but merely restore the status quo.
The war has been ongoing since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and subsequent attacks against northern Israel by Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Hezbollah.