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The French foreign minister rejected on Friday accusations that Paris has been complicit in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, insisting the country has taken active steps since the start of Israel's offensive in Gaza in October 2023.

"France, like other countries, may have seemed powerless, but we were never complicit in the massacres committed in Gaza by the (Benjamin) Netanyahu government (of Israel)," Jean Noel Barrot said during an interview to French radio RTL, responding to criticism that France has not done enough.

He recalled that France hosted the first international conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza, just one month after the war began, raising €1 billion ($1.14 billion) in support.

He also noted that France was the first Western nation to deploy a helicopter carrier near Gaza to provide medical assistance for civilians.

"France is also one of the rare countries that actively supports the Palestinian Authority," he added.

A new conference on a two-state solution is expected to take place in New York in the coming days, organized with French participation.

He argued that if all countries had adopted France’s approach, the situation in Gaza might have been different. “If everyone had followed France’s lead, we wouldn’t be here.”

Responding to earlier remarks suggesting that Gaza had become a “cemetery,” he noted that criticism is now coming from within Israel itself. “Former Israeli prime ministers, including Ehud Barak, are now speaking of an illegitimate war of devastation,” he said, comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance to that of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Despite growing condemnation, he acknowledged that the Israeli government has only made limited concessions under pressure.

"They reopened access to humanitarian aid, but in an insufficient and militarized way," he said, stressing that Israel's decision to control aid distribution rather than allowing humanitarian workers to manage it has led to "chaos, riots, and deadly violence."

Israel, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a genocidal offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 54,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million inhabitants.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.