Analysts and columnists in the French press face the developments in the Middle East with strong doses of pessimism and concern. In an interview with the financial newspaper Les Echos, Bronwyn Maddox, director of the international affairs think tank Chatham House, says that Israel will have to decide whether or not to enter Gaza and that its big problem is the issue of hostages. “There are many of them and they will be dispersed throughout Gaza and then used as leverage in the negotiation. This is an unprecedented situation. This is what makes me believe that this conflict will escalate over time, because Israel will not have an easy military solution because of the presence of the hostages. All of Netanyahu’s options are difficult,” he says and continues: “The Israeli government has shown overconfidence by acting as if the Palestinian issue would resolve itself. Israel’s tactic of waiting and waiting, perhaps a decade or two, for the problem to be resolved was not the justice the Palestinians sought.

Regarding the possibility of an extension of the crisis in the region, she replies: “The only country that might want an escalation of the conflict is Iran. I’m not saying that Tehran is behind the attack, we don’t know at the moment, but it was certainly happy . The other surrounding countries want quiet. Turkey, Egypt and perhaps Saudi Arabia are looking at how to avoid conflagration. Those countries could intervene, but it is still too early to know how.”

Moreover, in an interview with Figaro, the former French Ambassador to Russia and China, Jean-Maurice Ripert, among others, states that “the war is here, after the massive terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel. It is a terrorist war, which is being unleashed mainly against civilians, women, children and the elderly. All international laws are violated by these barbaric acts. Israel defends itself; the United Nations Charter recognizes this right. We can only hope that in their desire to eliminate once and for all Hamas, which is supported and armed from abroad, the Israelis will respect international humanitarian law in order to continue to benefit from the support of the international community. It is also necessary that the members of the United Nations, and in particular the permanent members of the Security Council , to assume their responsibilities and create the conditions for our resumption of the peace process, which will allow the creation of two states that will live side by side in peace and which will guarantee the security of the State of Israel”. In the same newspaper, Pierre Brossard, Director General of the EU’s Directorate General for External Security from 2002 to 2008, as well as Ambassador to Israel (between 1993 and 1995), in response to a question about the impact of this conflict on France, states that “a consequence for our country, apart from the death or arrest of our nationals, is the division created between us by the presence of a significant Muslim community.” According to Brossard, it is indicative that the French Minister of the Interior found it necessary to call “security meeting” to deal with “the impact on our soil of events happening 3,000 kilometers away”. And he continues: “Let us also not forget that Hamas, like Turkey’s AKP or Tunisia’s Ennahdha, is an integral part of the big Brotherhood family of Muslims, widely represented in our country.”