The 88 members of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), including France and Canada, have called for an “immediate and lasting” ceasefire in Lebanon, he added.
But Macron reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defence and said that on Monday he would be meeting relatives of Franco-Israelis held hostage in Gaza.
On Monday, Israel marks the first anniversary of the devastating October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war and has now engulfed neighbouring Lebanon, creating a perilous regional crisis.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has so far killed at least 41,825 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory. The UN has said those figures are reliable.
