France reaffirms that there is 'no alternative' to a two-state solution
"Only a political solution based on two states will meet the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. There is no alternative," he said.
Asked about the possible imposition of sanctions against Israel, Barrot listed a series of demands for Israel. "We know exactly what conditions Israel must meet. It owes more than $2 billion to the Palestinian Authority and must halt construction in the E1 area [in occupied West Bank] and cancel plans for more than 300 housing units in the West Bank," he said.
The minister also called for an end to the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by the United States and Israel, which he described as a militarized system responsible for "a bloodbath causing more than 1,000 deaths. This cannot continue."
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 1,157 Palestinians have been killed and 7,758 injured by gunfire from the Israeli army or American mercenaries during GHF aid distributions set up since early May.
These statements from the head of French diplomacy come just days after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris will soon recognize a Palestinian state, while Israel continues to reject any prospect of a process leading to this outcome by pursuing its destructive war in the Gaza Strip and settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nahar Net
31 minutes ago
- Nahar Net
Shiite Duo ministers to attend Thursday's cabinet session on US paper
by Naharnet Newsdesk 6 hours Environment Minister Tamara al-Zein of the Amal Movement and Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine of Hezbollah will attend Thursday's cabinet session that will tackle the latest U.S. paper on Hezbollah's disarmament, the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal reported, quoting an unnamed source. Al-Zein and Nassereddine 'are supposed to attend the session, unless certain developments take place in the next two days,' the source said. 'They walked out of the (cabinet) session (on Tuesday) in the last minutes, after they took part in all discussions, which were good, positive and extensive,' the source added. A Hezbollah statement said Wednesday that the two ministers walked out of the session 'in rejection of this decision and to reflect the rejection of the resistance, with all the significant segments of the Lebanese society that it represents, who belong to all regions, sects and parties, and also to reflect the broad popular rejection of the decision to subject Lebanon to U.S. hegemony and Israeli occupation.'
Nahar Net
4 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Gaza aid truck drivers face increasing danger from desperate crowds and armed gangs
by Naharnet Newsdesk 06 August 2025, 17:51 Truck drivers trying to deliver aid inside Gaza say their work has become increasingly dangerous in recent months as people have grown desperately hungry and violent gangs have filled a power vacuum left by the territory's Hamas rulers. Crowds of hungry people routinely rip aid off the backs of moving trucks, the local drivers said. Some trucks are hijacked by armed men working for gangs who sell the aid in Gaza's markets for exorbitant prices. Israeli troops often shoot into the chaos, they said. Drivers have been killed in the mayhem. Since March, when Israel ended a ceasefire in its war with Hamas and halted all imports, the situation has grown increasingly dire in the territory of some 2 million Palestinians. International experts are now warning of a "worst-case scenario of famine" in Gaza. Under heavy international pressure, Israel last week announced measures to let more aid into Gaza. Though aid groups say it's still not enough, getting even that amount from the border crossings to the people who need it is difficult and extremely dangerous, the drivers said. Driving aid trucks can be deadly Thousands of people packed around the road Monday as two trucks entered southern Gaza, AP video showed. Young men overwhelmed the trucks, standing on the cabs' roofs, dangling from the sides and clambering over each other onto the truck beds to grab boxes even as the trucks slowly kept driving. "Some of my drivers are scared to go transfer aid because they're concerned about how they'll untangle themselves from large crowds of people," said Abu Khaled Selim, vice president of the Special Transport Association, a nonprofit group that works with private transportation companies across the Gaza Strip and advocates for truck drivers' rights. Selim said his nephew, Ashraf Selim, a father of eight, was killed July 29 by a stray bullet when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds climbing onto the aid truck he was driving. Shifa Hospital officials said they received his body with an apparent gunshot to the head. The Israeli military said it was unaware of the incident and that "as a rule" it does not carry out deliberate attacks on aid trucks. Earlier in the war, aid deliveries were safer because, with more food getting into Gaza, the population was less desperate. Hamas-run police had been seen securing convoys and went after suspected looters and merchants who resold aid at exorbitant prices, Now, "with the situation unsecured, everything is permissible," said Selim, who appealed for protection so the aid trucks could reach warehouses. The U.N. does not accept protection from Israeli forces, saying it would violate its rules of neutrality, and said that given the urgent need for aid it would accept that hungry people were going to grab food off the back of the trucks as long as they weren't violent. Flooding Gaza with renewed aid would ease the desperation and make things safer for the drivers, said Juliette Touma, communications director at UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. The danger for drivers is growing Ali al-Derbashi, 22, was an aid truck driver for more than a year and a half, but he quit after his last trip three weeks ago because of the increasing danger, he said. Some people taking aid off the trucks are now carrying cleavers, knives and axes, he said. He was once ambushed and forcibly redirected to an area designated by Israel as a conflict zone in its war against Hamas. There everything was stolen, including his truck's fuel and batteries, and his tires were shot out, he said. He was beaten and his phone was stolen. "We put our lives in danger for this. We leave our families for two or three days every time. And we don't even have water or food ourselves," he said. In addition to the danger, the drivers faced humiliation from Israeli forces, he said, who put them through "prolonged searches, unclear instructions, and hours of waiting." The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the latest figures by Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians and operates under the Hamas government. The threats come from everywhere Nahed Sheheibr, head of the Special Transport Association, said the danger for the drivers comes from everywhere. He accused Israel of detaining drivers and using them as human shields. The Israeli military did not comment on the accusation. In recent days, men linked to a violent Gaza clan fired at drivers, injuring one, and looted a convoy of 14 trucks, he said. They later looted a convoy of 10 trucks. Hossni al-Sharafi, who runs a trucking company and was an aid driver himself, said he is only allowed to use drivers who have no political affiliation and have been approved by Israel to transport aid from crossings. Al-Sharafi said he was detained by Israeli forces for more than 10 days last year while transporting aid from the southern Kerem Shalom crossing and interrogated about where the truck was headed and how the aid was being distributed. Israeli officials did not comment on the accusations. Some drivers spoke of being shot at repeatedly by armed gangs. Others said their trucks were routinely picked clean — even of the wooden pallets— by waves of desperate people, many of whom were fighting each other for the food, while Israeli troops were shooting. Hungry families who miss out on the aid throw stones at the trucks in anger. Anas Rabea said the moment he pulled out of the Zikkim crossing last week his aid truck was overwhelmed by a crowd. "Our instructions are to stop, because we don't want to run anyone over," he said. "It's crazy. You have people climbing all over the cargo, over the windows. It's like you're blind, you can't see out." After the crowd had stripped everything, he drove another few hundred meters and was stopped by an armed gang that threatened to shoot him. They searched the truck and took a bag of flour he had saved for himself, he said. "Every time we go out, we get robbed," he said. "It's getting worse day by day."
Nahar Net
4 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Amal says govt. violated ministerial statement, Thursday session a 'chance for correction'
by Naharnet Newsdesk 06 August 2025, 17:11 The Amal Movement announced Wednesday that the Lebanese government 'should have dedicated its efforts to consolidate the ceasefire and put an end to the Israeli killing machine' instead of taking its Tuesday decision to monopolize arms in the state's hand before the year's end. The government 'contradicted what was mentioned in the president's inaugural speech and violated its Ministerial Statement, and accordingly tomorrow's session represents a chance for correction and for restoring Lebanese solidarity,' the Movement added in a statement. Amal's minister Tamara al-Zein and Hezbollah minister Rakan Nassereddine had walked out of Tuesday's session in protest at its decisions. The government "tasked the Lebanese Army with setting an implementation plan to restrict weapons" to the army and other government forces "before the end of this year," with the plan to be presented to the cabinet by the end of this month, PM Nawaf Salam told a press conference after a nearly six-hour cabinet session headed by President Joseph Aoun. Salam also announced that Cabinet would discuss the latest U.S. paper in its session on Thursday. The Iran-backed Hezbollah emerged badly weakened from more than a year of hostilities with Israel, including two months of all-out war that saw its arsenal pummeled and a slew of senior commanders killed, among them leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Long the strongest political force in Lebanon -- with detractors accusing it of using the threat of its weaponry to impose its will on domestic decisions -- Hezbollah has also seen that influence diminish since the conflict. Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem, in a televised address while the cabinet meeting was underway, said the Iran-backed group would not disarm while Israeli attacks continue. "Any timetable presented for implementation under... Israeli aggression cannot be agreed to," he said. Israel has kept up regular raids on Lebanon despite the November truce, mostly saying it is striking Hezbollah targets, and has threatened to keep doing so until the group has been disarmed. Qassem also criticized a recent proposal presented by Barrack on disarming the group. Hezbollah is the only faction that kept its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of "resistance" against Israel, which occupied the country's south until 2000. Last month, Barrack urged Lebanon to "act now" to impose a state weapons monopoly.
