Former French PM Dominque de Villepin slams West's 'double standards' on Gaza, where 'hearts, heads and souls are in pieces'

Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has criticised France and Western nations' "double standards" on Gaza, describing the war as a "historical scandal", during a damning interview on Thursday.

De Villepin said France's influence on the global stage had faded and warned that Israel was "creating the conditions" for the reoccupation of Gaza.

In an interview with French radio station France Inter on Thursday, de Villepin, who was prime minister from 2005 to 2007, said Israel's war in Gaza was unlike previous conflicts due to the massive civilian death toll where well over 41,118 people have been killed.

He slammed the current French government, led by President Emmanuel Macron, for not using economic or "weapons" leverage to pressure Israel and decried the "hearts" and "souls" in Gaza which have been "torn to pieces".

"In Gaza bodies are torn into pieces, hearts are in pieces! Souls are in pieces! Heads are in pieces," de Villepin said in the impassioned interview.

The 70-year-old was prime minister during the presidency of Jacques Chirac in the 2000s and held several government positions and cabinet roles during a 15-year career in politics following a diplomatic stint.

Israel’s conflict in Gaza has been largely backed by European nations in support of "Israel’s right to defend itself" against Hamas since it began last October. More than 135,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded since then and Israel's military has faced accusations of war crimes.

As the war has dragged on, international calls for Israel to tone down its relentless bombing of the dense enclave have grown, as chunks of cities have been flattened, hospitals attacked, and most of the 2.3 million population displaced.

The former prime minister said it was clear that Israel was planning to reoccupy Gaza with the "complete" besiegement of the territory since it has blocked the border and split the enclave in half after it placed troops along Wadi Gaza to occupy what it calls the 'Netzarim Corridor'.

"One must see that Israel is in the process of creating the conditions for a reoccupation of Gaza whether in the southern border or the line that cuts through the middle of Gaza," he said, adding that Israel has "regained possession" of Gaza.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Israel's government to end the war and in March took a hard line against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned invasion of Rafah when he warned that any forced transfer of people there would qualify as a war crime, although Israel went ahead with the assault anyway.

The international community has so far failed to procure a truce deal between Israel and Hamas, despite the worsening humanitarian crisis for Palestinians and the fate of the Israeli captives.

De Villepin criticised Western nations for not respecting international law in relation to Israel's brutal actions in Gaza and said the war had become a "taboo" subject in France, where he said it was difficult to find media reports on the situation in Gaza.

Netanyahu has repeatedly said that international concerns will not deter his war aims of "dismantling Hamas" and returning 100 captives, by force, still held in the territory.

De Villepin, who now runs an art gallery, said that one of the biggest disasters of the war is that Israel has "no political objective".

"Israel has no political objective and when you have no political objective the only thing you can do is war," he said, explaining that Israel instead has a security and "identity objective".

"There is a Messianic madness and that explains the catastrophe that we’re witnessing," the ex-prime minister went on to say, following the appointment of far-right radicals as ministers.

He also spoke about the worsening conflict in Ukraine since Russia's February 2022 invasion of the country.

De Villepin is remembered for his opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, when he gave a rousing speech at the United Nations in which he urged France to stand up to Washington in its unprovoked assault on the country.