Top French diplomat due to make unplanned Cairo visit amid cease-fire negotiations

ANKARA (AA) – France’s foreign minister is reportedly set to pay a surprise visit to Cairo, Egypt, where cease-fire talks are ongoing.

According to French media reports on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources, Stephane Sejourne is set to engage in talks in Cairo, where discussions between Hamas and Israeli delegations on a cease-fire have reportedly intensified.

Sejourne's visit to Cairo was not previously mentioned in his Middle East itinerary.

His five-day Middle East tour, due to end Wednesday, had already seen him hold discussions in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, highlighting France's engagement in regional diplomacy.

France has reiterated its calls for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of three French hostages held by Hamas.

The Egyptian press reported Tuesday that a Hamas delegation had left Cairo and that Egypt would provide a written response to the cease-fire proposal in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7 which killed some 1,200 people.

More than 34,500 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and thousands injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.