French President Emmanuel Macron has harshly condemned the bombardment of civilian infrastructure in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza while defending France’s “balanced” approach to the conflict, AFP reports.

“We condemn in the strongest terms all bombardment of civilians and in particular civilian infrastructure, which must be protected” under international law, Macron told reporters in Bern during a state visit to Switzerland.

He was answering a question about the Israeli military raid on Gaza’s main hospital, Al-Shifa, sparking fears for thousands of patients and other civilians said to be trapped inside.

Macron did not mention the hospital by name but stressed that the obligations under international law to protect civilian infrastructure referred “not only to the buildings but to the health workers inside”, recalling that dozens of workers for humanitarian agencies were killed in just over a month of fighting in Gaza.