The Élysée announced this Sunday evening that Emmanuel Macron would visit Israel on Tuesday, a little more than two weeks after the Hamas terrorist attack against the Hebrew state. The head of the Israeli government had previously indicated the upcoming visits of the French President and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Tel Aviv on Tuesday to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Elysée announced on Sunday. The head of the Israeli government had indicated, shortly before on X (formerly Twitter), the upcoming visit of the French President and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The visit of the French head of state comes more than two weeks after the deadly attacks by Palestinian Hamas on Israeli territory, which left more than 1,400 dead, including 30 French nationals. In addition, seven French people are still missing: a young woman has hostage status and “for the other six, there is a presumption of hostage-taking, but without certainty”, indicated Emmanuel Macron.
The resumption of a “political process”
American President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have already visited Israel, as has Italian head of government Giorgia Meloni on Saturday. Emmanuel Macron repeated for his part on Friday that he would go to the Middle East if he managed to “obtain useful elements” for the region thanks to this trip.
He then cited, among these elements, the “security of Israel”, the “fight against terrorist groups”, the non-escalation of the conflict and the resumption of a “political process” towards a two-state solution, Israeli and Palestinian. The French president expressed unfailing support for the Israelis, their “right to defend themselves”, but also called for a “targeted” Israeli response against Hamas in Gaza in order to “spare” Palestinian civilians.
Joe Biden discussed the war between Hamas and Israel on the phone on Sunday with Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Justin Trudeau, Olaf Scholz, Giorgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak.
This article is originally published on .europe1.fr