An international coalition is needed to defeat Hamas, French President Emmanuel Macron said in Jerusalem on Tuesday, as Paris weighs the possibility of military involvement in the war against the terror group.“I consider that it is an international coalition in order to fight against this terror group that we have to build,” he said during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.“What we are saying is that France is available to build a coalition against Hamas or to include Hamas in what we are already doing in the coalition against ISIS,” a source from the Élysée said.“France takes this threat [from Hamas] very seriously, and we are ready to be involved in all that it takes to get rid of this group,” the source said.Macron arrived on the 18th day of the Gaza war, in a one-day solidarity visit with the Jewish state, as the IDF prepared for a major ground campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza.
Netanyahu has told visiting leaders like Macron that Hamas is the new ISIS, a claim that has resonated in the aftermath of the terror group’s infiltration into southern Israel on October 7, in which it killed over 1,400 civilians and soldiers and took another 222 hostages. Thirty French citizens are among the dead and another seven are missing.Standing with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Macron said, “This fight against terrorism is obviously a matter of existence for Israel, but it’s a matter of existence for all of us.”International support for Israel’s campaign has wavered amid the IDF’s heavy bombardment of Gaza, which according to Hamas has claimed close to 6,000 lives.France, however, took a particularly strong stand in support of the necessity of ousting Hamas from Gaza, and could even consider military aid, although the details of what this means were very vague.“The cause that Israel is fighting is our cause,” the source from the Élysée Palace said.The source further expanded on the matter, explaining that France is an active member of the anti-ISIS coalition.“The goal is to draw inspiration from the experience of the international coalition against ISIS and check which aspects can also be applied against Hamas,” the source said. “We are therefore willing to think, together with our partners and with Israel, about relevant methods of action against Hamas.”It would, of course, be up to Israel to explain what it might need in the campaign against Hamas.The international coalition against Islamic State is not limited to operations in the field, but also includes training of Iraqi forces, exchange of information between the partners, and the fight against the financing of terrorism, the source said.Conversations on the matter are still in an early phase. It is unclear if Israel would need external military assistance from France. Paris, like Washington, is also unclear about what Israel’s end goals are in its likely Gaza ground campaign and needs to better understand the strategy to properly assess its own involvement.In Washington, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby did not directly respond to a question about US support for such a coalition, explaining that American focus is on making sure Israel has what it needs to battle Hamas.The US has also been focused on preventing the regionalization of the conflict.
Possibility of a two-front war
The Biden administration is also concerned that Iranian proxy attacks on Israel could lead to direct military confrontation between Washington and Iran.
“Hamas and Hezbollah and these militia groups in Iraq and in Syria” have over the weekend attacked “some of our facilities and our troops as well as our diplomats,” Kirby said on Monday at a Foreign Press Center briefing. “‘I can tell you that we are certainly not blind at all to what Iran is doing.”In Jerusalem, Macron stressed France’s determination to ensure that Hezbollah does not go to war against Israel.He told President Isaac Herzog, “We warned Hezbollah [and] passed very clear messages.”Herzog said Hezbollah and Iran were “playing with fire” on the country’s northern border in attempting to provoke a two-front war.“If Hezbollah will drag us into war, it should be clear that Lebanon will pay the price,” Herzog said.“Lebanon can not be a sovereign member of the international community, its citizens carrying a Lebanese passport, but when it comes to Israel its citizens are not responsible.“By international law we have the full right to defend ourselves,” Herzog said.Iran, he clarified, is working to destabilize the region.“We are not looking for a confrontation on our northern border or with anyone else. We are focused [in the South] on destroying Hamas infrastructure and bringing our citizens back home,” Herzog said.Herzog told Macron that the “situation was complicated and fragile” and that Israel was demanding the full release of all the captives.Separately, he told Macron he was worried by the rise of antisemitism around the world and in France.Macron assured Herzog that Israel was not alone in its fight against terror.“We stand shoulder to shoulder with you,” Macron said.“I speak here on behalf of a country which experiences terrorist attacks,” Macron said. “It is our duty to fight against these terror groups without any confusion and without enlarging the conflict.”Upon arrival, he tweeted that France was “bound to Israel through mourning.” He also met with bereaved families of the victims of the October 7 attack.France, the US, and the international community continued to work to free the hostages, with some limited success after two Israeli women were released on Monday night and two American-Israeli women were freed on Saturday night.Kirby has persistently rejected any attempts to suggest that the hostages could be freed in exchange for a ceasefire.In Washington on Monday night, US President Joe Biden hinted that he could support a Gaza ceasefire if Hamas released all its hostages.During a White House event, a reporter asked him, “Is the United States supporting a hostage-for-a-ceasefire deal?”Biden responded, “We should have a ceasefire,” he said and then corrected himself.“We should have the hostages released and then we should talk,” Biden said.The US has advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault and is keeping Qatar – a broker with Hamas – apprised of those talks, sources said.
The White House, Pentagon, and State Department have stepped up private appeals for caution in conversations with the Israelis.
Reuters contributed to this report.