The announcement may seem modest in view of the fire threatening the entirety of the Middle East, almost three weeks after Hama's attack on Israel on October 7. In Cairo on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a plane would arrive Thursday in Egypt with medical supplies for the population of the Gaza Strip, and that a French navy vessel would be dispatched. Leaving from Toulon port on the Mediterranean Sea, the Tonnerre will provide support to hospitals in the Hamas-administered Palestinian enclave, which is on the verge of collapse after nearly three weeks of total blockade and Israeli bombardment.

On the strength of these humanitarian efforts, the French president sought to convince Israel's Arab neighbors – starting with Egypt and Jordan, where he pursued his trip – of his determination to avoid the worst. After expressing his "solidarity" with Israel the previous day, and justifying its "right to defend itself," Macron warned Tel Aviv against a "massive ground invasion," likely to multiply the number of civilian victims.

Such an operation would be "a mistake," because it would "not be likely to protect Israel in the long term and (...) is not compatible with respect for civilian populations, international humanitarian law and even the rules of war," Macron told journalists in Cairo just before taking off for Paris. It was a way of saying out loud what many capitals are thinking, at a time when his American counterpart, Joe Biden, was also encouraging Israel to do "everything possible to spare civilians."

However, echoing Israel's position, the French president refrained from calling for a ceasefire – in other words, a halt to the bombardments in Gaza, which have already caused 6,500 deaths, according to the territory's Hamas-run administration. Macron even refrained from calling for a "humanitarian pause" or "truce," an idea developed before his departure by his entourage and taken up by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. The president merely spoke of "humanitarian protection," a formula that does not automatically imply a temporary cessation of hostilities.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, on the other hand, insisted on the "absolute necessity" of stopping the war in Gaza, as "its continuation could lead to an explosion of the situation in the region." President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi of Egypt, also in favor of a ceasefire, urged Israel to avoid "a ground invasion of Gaza," which he said would result in "a large number of civilian casualties."

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