French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Israel today for a visit. According to AFP, he wants to assure Israel of France’s “total solidarity” after the major Hamas attack on October 7.
According to the Élysée Palace, he also wants to call on Israel to spare the Palestinian civilian population in its counterattacks on the Gaza Strip. He also wants to defend a “humanitarian ceasefire”.
According to the Elysee, Macron will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Yitzchak Herzog and opposition leaders Jair Lapid and Benni Ganz.
Meeting with relatives
In addition, Macron also wants to meet with family members of French citizens in Tel Aviv who were killed in the attack by Hamas terrorists or taken hostage to the Gaza Strip. At least 30 are French among the 1,400 dead. Since then, seven other French citizens have disappeared.
One woman is held hostage by Hamas and the French government suspects that the other six were also kidnapped by the Islamists. Before Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden, among others, were in Israel.