French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne arrived in Cairo Wednesday as part of a push to secure a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Sejourne was due to meet with Egyptian officials in the latest stop on a trip that also included visits to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Cairo has been host to talks involving U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators that have produced the latest cease-fire proposal. The proposal calls for a halt in fighting that lasts several weeks, the release of hostages held by Hamas, the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and an increase in humanitarian aid for people in Gaza.
Sejourne said after talks Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that France’s policy remains that the hostages must be freed, the cease-fire must be signed and de-escalation must take place in Lebanon.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on a similar mission in the region, holding talks Wednesday with officials in Israel.
Israel’s military said Wednesday it carried out airstrikes overnight against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, the latest in months of cross-border attacks between the two sides.
In Gaza, the health ministry said Wednesday at least 33 people were killed during the past day. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,500 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the health ministry.
Israel launched a campaign to eliminate the Hamas militant group after the Hamas attack on Israel in October that killed 1,200 people.
Hamas also took about 250 hostages during the attack, and it is believed to still be holding about 100, along with the remains of 30 or more hostages who have either been killed or otherwise died in the ensuing months.
U.N. officials reiterated their concerns Tuesday about a planned Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering.
Netanyahu says the offensive is necessary to meet Israel’s goal, and that it will happen whether or not there is a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas.
“A military assault on Rafah would be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Tuesday.
“I appeal for all those with influence over Israel to do everything in their power to prevent it,” he added.
U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths later added his own plea.
“The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, but a ground operation there is on the immediate horizon,” he said in a statement.
“The simplest truth,” Griffiths said, “is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words.”
Guterres also said scaling up aid to Gaza is urgent, especially to the north where some people, including children, have begun to die from hunger and disease.
“We must do everything possible to avert an entirely preventable, human-made famine,” he said. “We have seen incremental progress recently, but much more is urgently needed — including the promised opening of two crossing points between Israel and northern Gaza, so that aid can be brought into Gaza from Ashdod port and Jordan.”
VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
