France’s foreign minister called for a “new, immediate and sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip after arriving in Israel today, while her Israeli counterpart called any call for a ceasefire a “mistake”.

Paris is “extremely concerned” about the situation in Gaza and calls for a “new, immediate and lasting ceasefire”, Catherine Colonna said after speaking with Eli Cohen as she got off the plane in Tel Aviv.

“Too many civilians have been killed,” the French minister added in statements she made to reporters.

On his part, Eli Cohen reiterated the position of the Israeli government, according to which any call for a ceasefire constitutes a “mistake” and a “gift to Hamas”, the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in Gaza that launched a bloody attack on Israel on 7 October.

Katrin Colonna also asked that the Israelis who fell victim to the Hamas attack should not be forgotten.

“It goes without saying that France believes the words of these women who were victims, that France believes them and those who witnessed these rapes and mutilations, these desecrations,” she noted, referring to the atrocities committed by Hamas fighters. in Israel.

France can play an “important” role in Lebanon to avoid a flare-up of regional tensions amid almost daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, the Israeli foreign minister told his French counterpart.

“There is still an opportunity to prevent war in Lebanon. If the international community fails, we will have no choice but to take it on,” Cohen said in remarks he made after his meeting with Colonna in Tel Aviv.

“France can play a positive and important role” to prevent a war, the Israeli foreign minister stressed.