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French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday announced a “humanitarian conference” would be held in Paris on November 9, and reiterated calls for a truce in Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip to protect civilians.
The French president said the conference would be held “on the margins” of the Paris Peace Forum, which will take place next week in the French capital.
“We are calling for a truce because the fight against terrorism does not justify sacrificing civilians,” Macron told reporters during a visit to the storm-ravaged Brittany region, according to French media reports.
Macron’s announcement echoes a proposal from Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for a peace conference to resolve the Israel-Hamas war at a recent European summit.
It comes as the French foreign ministry earlier on Friday asked Israel for explanations after an Israeli strike hit a building of the French Institute in the Gaza Strip.
“We have asked the Israeli authorities to communicate without delay … the tangible elements which motivated this decision,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that no employees or French citizens were present in the building at the time of the strike.
Agence France-Presse’s Gaza bureau was also shelled by Israeli forces on Friday, causing “significant damage” to the building but no casualties among AFP staff, which had been evacuated to southern Gaza, the French newswire said in a statement on X.
The Gaza Strip — which is controlled by the Hamas militant group and home to 2.3 million people — has been under a “complete siege” by Israel for nearly four weeks, limiting all access to food, water and fuel in retaliation for Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel soil on October 7, which killed more than 1,400 people.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza, more than 9,200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s ground and airborne offensive, which as of Thursday evening had led to the encirclement of Gaza City by Israeli forces.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday dismissed calls from U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for a humanitarian pause to let aid into Gaza, saying Israeli’s army would keep bombarding the enclave with “all of its power.”
