France's objective is to speed up cease-fire in Gaza, says president

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) – France is seeking to reach a cease-fire in the embattled Gaza Strip faster, said the country’s President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday evening.

"France's objective is to speed up the cease-fire in Gaza and secure the release of all hostages," he told a press conference after a European Council meeting in Brussels.

Although the war in Gaza was on the agenda of the meeting, in the council’s published conclusions, there was just a single vague sentence on the conflict.

“The European Council discussed the latest developments in the Middle East,” it said.

France is one of the countries that has suspended funding of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or the UNRWA, over Israeli allegations targeting the institution.

​​​​​​​Israel has mounted a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, killing over 27,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 66,000, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in a Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.