PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Israel to avoid escalation, “especially in Lebanon,” after an attack in Beirut linked to Israel that killed deputy leader of Hamas, the Elysee Palace stated on Tuesday.
Macron told Israeli minister that through telephone “it was necessary to avoid any escalatory attitude, especially in Lebanon, and that Paris would continue to pass on these messages to all players indirectly or directly involved in the region,” Macron’s office said.
Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh Al-Aruri was assassinated in a strike linked to Israel in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, Hamas and Lebanese security authorities said.
Macron Asks Israel to Avoid Escalation After Beirut Attack
Israel often carries out attacks against Hezbollah along its shared border with Lebanon, but Aruri’s assassination was the first time since the start of the war in Gaza that it has targeted Beirut.
After the attack, Hezbollah pledged Saleh Al-Aruri’s death would not go “unpunished,” describing it “a serious attack on Lebanon… and a dangerous development in the course of the conflict.”
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Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the assassination and said it “aims to draw” his country (Lebanon) further into the war. Macron also reiterated his call for a “permanent truce” between Hamas and Israel, the presidency added.
The French President also expressed again his “deepest concern” at the increasing civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip. Since October, 7 Israel launched a relentless bombing and ground offensive against the people of Palestine in Gaza has killed more than 22,185 people, mostly children and women, Gaza’s health ministry said.
