Foreign Minister Stefan was on an express visit to Israel

After Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournet arrived in Israel on Tuesday, where he met with his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz. This 24-hour visit between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is part of a Middle East tour.

“I reaffirmed our position to stop the escalation; release of hostages, ceasefire, de-escalation in Lebanon,” he said on social network X after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart.

The tour comes as long-term mediation between Qatar and Egypt appears to be bearing fruit and raises hopes of a truce between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement with the release of a number of hostages after nearly seven months of fighting and almost daily fighting. explosions in the Gaza Strip.

Hope for a truce

In Israel, “discussions will revolve around efforts, in particular by France, to achieve increased humanitarian assistance” in the Gaza Strip, a French diplomatic source said. According to the same source, they will also address “the risk of an offensive in Rafah, which (France) has already shown very, very strong resistance to.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists he intends to carry out an offensive on Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, where he says the last Hamas battalions that attacked Israel on October 7 are concentrated.

The Rafah offensive is just around the corner

Many countries, including the United States, Israel’s historic ally, have publicly expressed their opposition, fearing a bloodbath in the city where 1.5 million Palestinian civilians are huddled by the fighting, according to the United Nations. Stephane Sejournet is also expected to meet with several Israeli political figures, as well as representatives of the families of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

On October 7, Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack from the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, killing 1,170 people, AFP reported, based on official Israeli data. They also kidnapped about 250 people and 129 people remain captive in the Gaza Strip, 34 of whom died, according to Israeli officials. The massive military operation carried out in response by Israel in the Gaza Strip killed 34,535 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas.