Israel/Palestinian Territories – Situation in Rafah (10 May 2024)

France deplores the launch on 7 May of an Israeli-army military operation in Rafah. As France has already emphasized, such an operation threatens to cause a disastrous situation for Gaza’s civilian populations, who have already been repeatedly displaced. Civilians have no safe area in Gaza today. We call on the Israeli authorities to stop this military operation without delay and resume the path of negotiations, the only way possible to bring about the hostages’ immediate release and secure a lasting ceasefire.

France calls on Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing point into Egypt immediately, which is essential as much for getting humanitarian aid to the civilian population as it is for allowing the most vulnerable people to leave the Gaza Strip. France once again calls on Israel to do everything in its power to ensure that civilians are protected and to guarantee access for humanitarian aid, in accordance with international law and the demands of the International Court of Justice.

France strongly condemns the attacks on a Jordanian humanitarian convoy by Israeli settlers on 7 May and calls on the Israeli authorities to end settler violence. France also condemns Hamas’s attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing point.