NNA - French President Emmanuel Macron stressed in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the necessity of “opening the port of Ashdod and a direct land route from Jordan and all crossings” to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Macron expressed "France's firm opposition to launching an Israeli attack on Rafah, which will only lead to a humanitarian catastrophe of an unprecedented size, as happens with every forced population displacement, which will constitute a violation of international humanitarian law and increase the risk of a regional escalation," according to a statement by the Elysee Palace reported by Agence France-Presse.

Macron stressed "the urgent need to reach, without further delay, an agreement on a ceasefire that guarantees the protection of all civilians and the entry of emergency aid on a large scale."

The French President stressed the need to "stop" Israeli military operations in the besieged Strip because "the human toll and the humanitarian situation" have become "unbearable."

He denounced "Israeli settlement policy," calling for "the dismantling of settlement outposts" and for "avoiding any action that would lead to an uncontrolled escalation in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank."

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