Israel denounces Macron UN remarks on West Bank

Israel has responded angrily to French President Emmanuel Macron after he criticised Israeli actions in the West Bank by saying Hamas was not active in the territory that is home to the Palestinian Authority.

"The grotesque absurdity of Emmanuel Macron's statement is staggering," said a statement by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to deliver a defiant address to the world body tomorrow.

"Hamas terrorists carry out attacks against Jews almost every day. They have murdered countless Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria," it said, using the Biblical name for the West Bank, which Israel seized in 1967.

Mr Netanyahu's office pointed to the shooting death on Sunday on the eve of Judaism's holiest day of Yom Kippur of an Israeli settler in the West Bank. Israel said that the victim also had French citizenship.