The comments were made on Wednesday during a ceremony in Paris, after a journalist asked whether there was a double standard in the reaction to killings in Israel and in Gaza and whether the latter also deserved a tribute.
In a widely circulated response, Hollande said: “It cannot be the same tribute. A life is a life and one life is equivalent to another but there are victims of terrorism and victims of war. Being a victim of terrorism means being attacked as a French person or as a defender of a way of life. A collateral victim, you are in war… it‘s not of the same nature.”