CAIRO: French President Emmanuel Macron met his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Wednesday and called for a return to the Israel-Palestinian peace process, on the latest leg of a whistlestop crisis tour.
On Tuesday Macron was in Israel where he voiced support for its retaliation against Hamas after gunmen from the Islamist group unleashed the deadliest attack on Israel in its history on October 7.
Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
In relentless Israeli bombing since, more than 6,500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
In Cairo, Macron said “France does not practice double standards, international law applies to everyone and France has always carried the universal values of humanism.”
He was responding to claims by Arab leaders who have accused Western nations of overlooking harm to Palestinians.
Egypt and Jordan were the first two Arab states to forge relations with Israel, in 1979 and 1994 respectively, and have since played key mediator roles.
Cairo has been one of the main brokers in efforts to secure the release of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
At their joint news conference, El-Sisi said he and Macron had discussed “the importance of striving to avoid a ground invasion” of Gaza, because of the “many, many civilian casualties” it could cause.
After more than two weeks of relentless bombardment and siege by Israel, Gaza’s already-fragile health care system is at risk of collapsing, with hospitals running out of essential supplies and fuel to power generators.
Macron said on Wednesday that France would be sending a navy ship to support Gaza’s hospitals within the next 48 hours.
France would also send a planeload of medical equipment to Egypt to be transported into Gaza via the Rafah crossing, the only passage in and out of the besieged territory not controlled by Israel.
After a series of negotiations, humanitarian aid has been allowed to trickle in through Rafah, but the United Nations warns a massive scale-up is needed to meet the needs of 2.4 million people in Gaza — half of whom have been displaced.
El-Sisi on Wednesday called for a de-escalation, cease-fire and return to diplomacy, stressing that “the lack of a political horizon” had led to the current war.
Macron echoed El-Sisi’s support for a “two-state solution” — the cornerstone of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians that have been stalled for years.
“It is difficult at the moment to talk about the resumption of a peace process,” Macron said, adding however that “it is more necessary than ever.”
Arab leaders have repeatedly pushed for a return to a political process, echoing wider warnings of a potential regional spillover of the Hamas-Israel war.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who hosted Macron on Tuesday, warned against “the continuation of the war on the Gaza Strip, which might lead to an explosion in the situation in the region.”
Before meeting Macron, El-Sisi inspected Egyptian troops and spoke in a televised address of “patience” and “wisdom.”
“You must always be ready,” he told them, three days after an Egyptian border watchtower was hit and guards were wounded by accidental Israeli shelling.
He said Egypt was doing “all it can” to push for de-escalation and a cease-fire, as well as to “support civilians in Gaza” by sending aid through the Rafah border crossing.
El-Sisi said the military display was originally planned for the 50th anniversary of the “glorious victory” of October 6, 1973 — the date of a surprise attack that led to Egypt regaining control of the Sinai Peninsula from Israel.
