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France is making plans to recognize a Palestinian state and could do so as early as June, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with a French broadcaster on Wednesday.
Macron said he hoped that by recognizing Palestinian statehood at a conference in June, which France is co-organizing with Saudi Arabia, pushing for a two-state solution, participants who do not officially recognize Israel would do so.
"We must move towards recognition and we will do so in the coming months," the French president said.
Macron added that he was not doing this for unity or to please this or that person. "I am doing it because at some point it will be right," he said.
Macron's comments come after Israel resumed its bombing of the Gaza Strip last month, when a two-month ceasefire ended and ceasefire talks broke down between Israel and the militant group Hamas. Israel has since stopped sending humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.
Israel's war in Gaza was triggered by a Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 against southern Israel, during which 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says that more than 50,000 people in Gaza have died in the ensuing conflict. This figure includes both civilian and combat casualties.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict resonates deeply in France, which is home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities.
Israel is also home to a large French-speaking community that has maintained strong ties to France.
France has always been in favor of a two-state solution but has resisted calls to recognize a Palestinian state, often arguing that Paris would only do so if it served the peace process.
Macron's comments came at the end of a three-day trip to Egypt, during which he visited a hospital treating Palestinians in the city of El Arish, near the border with Gaza.
"I want to believe in peace; today the conflict has intensified and is terrible. Since March 2, nothing is entering the Gaza Strip - no water, no food, no medicine, and none of the wounded are leaving," Macron said.
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