French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday, April 7, that the Palestinian militant group Hamas should have no role in governing the Gaza Strip once its war with Israel is over. On a visit to Cairo to discuss the war, the French president said Gaza's post-war governance should be "led by the Palestinian Authority," dominated by Hamas's rival party Fatah and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"Hamas must have no role in this governance, and must no longer constitute a threat to Israel," Macron said. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and strongly rejected any future role for the Islamist group in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has recently signalled willingness to cede power in Gaza, which the Iran-backed group has ruled since 2007.
Macron commended Egypt's "tireless efforts" as mediator in the conflict, having brokered the January ceasefire in Gaza, along with Qatar and the United States. The deal collapsed when Israel sought to extend the deal's first phase but Hamas insisted on talks for a second phase, as originally outlined by then-US president Joe Biden.
Macron also said he was strongly opposed to any displacement of Palestinians, throwing his weight behind a Gaza reconstruction plan endorsed by the Arab League to counter a US proposal to send the war-ravaged territory's inhabitants elsewhere. Speaking alongside President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Egyptian capital, Macron said that "we are firmly opposed to the displacement of populations and to any annexation of both Gaza and the West Bank," which Israel has occupied since 1967. He said the Arab League's plan "offers a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and should also pave the way for new Palestinian governance" in the territory.
Macron and Sisi were joined on Monday by Jordan's King Abdullah II for a summit on the war and humanitarian efforts to alleviate the war-induced suffering of Gaza's 2.4 million people. The visit was a show of support for Egypt and Jordan, countries that US President Donald Trump had proposed as destinations to relocate Gazans to, in his widely criticised idea to move Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.
Sisi warned that without a "just solution" for the plight of Palestinians there will not be "lasting peace and permanent stability in the Middle East."
King Abdullah stressed the need for "a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution," a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
After a two-month truce, Israel resumed intense bombardment across the Gaza Strip and restarted ground operations, killing at least 1,391 Palestinians since March 18, according to the territory's health ministry. Macron said both France and Egypt "condemn the resumption of Israeli strikes on Gaza," warning of a "dramatic" worsening in the situation on the ground. Both Macron and Sisi voiced support for "an immediate return" to the ceasefire and the resumption of aid access into Gaza, which Israel blocked shortly before renewing its offensive.