Former Israeli hostage Agam Berger told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot that “diplomatic solutions” to ending Israel’s war with Hamas will not work, in a meeting with the top French diplomat in Paris on Friday.
“They don’t want [to live] ‘together.’ All of these diplomatic solutions… it’s not going to work because it’s us or them,” Berger said in Hebrew during the meeting, seeming to reference the Hamas terror group, in a clip shared by the Kan public broadcaster.
Berger, 20, was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, from the IDF surveillance unit at the Nahal Oz military base. She was released from captivity on January 30, 2025, as part of a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
“If it were possible not to choose war, we wouldn’t choose it. But the moment that there is a war for the existence of our country — that’s what we’re going to do,” she said.
Following the meeting, Barrot wrote in a French-language post on X that he met “with the families of the hostages and Agam Berger” who was “held in captivity for 473 days in inhumane conditions.”
“All the hostages must be freed. Now. Hamas must be disarmed and excluded from Gaza’s political future,” he wrote.
The meeting took place at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris and was attended by families of 20 of the 58 remaining hostages, including those of Elkana Bohbot, Bar Kuperstein, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Matan Angrest, Uriel Baruch, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Tamir Adar, Segev Kalfon, Jonathan Samerano, Idan Shtivi, and Guy Illouz, according to the French Embassy in Israel.
“Minister Barrot heard the delegation’s plea for help and support in order to secure the release of hostages still being held in Gaza,” according to a readout of the meeting shared by the embassy.
Barrot “reiterated that Hamas was a brutal terrorist organization that needed to be fought, disarmed and excluded from any political solution in Gaza,” and that “France had taken sanctions against Hamas and its members, it was ready to contribute to the definition of a lasting political solution to the conflict, without Hamas,” said the readout.
He “reiterated France’s absolute commitment to an immediate and unconditional release of all remaining hostages,” and that “France had worked to deliver medicine to hostages in Gaza and was activating all diplomatic channels, most notably with mediating Arab countries, to enable their release,” the readout continued.
The foreign minister also “recalled France’s steadfast commitment to Israel’s security,” referencing French assistance in warding off Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel as well as interception of Houthi drones in the Red Sea, and said Paris “was fully engaged to ensure that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon.”
The meeting came amid heightened diplomatic tensions with France, which has repeatedly called on Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza, lift restrictions on allowing humanitarian aid into the enclave.
France’s Emmanuel Macron along with the UK’s Keir Starmer and Canada’s Mark Carney, issued a joint statement Monday, in which they condemned Israel’s handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and called on Israel to immediately halt military action in the enclave and allow in more aid, threatening “further concrete actions in response” if Jerusalem refuses.
The three leaders called Israel’s announcement Sunday to allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza “wholly inadequate” and said the country’s failure to assist the Gazan civilian population “is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law.”
Last month, Macron said that France would recognize a Palestinian state within months, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced as a “huge prize for terror.”
Macron and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman plan to hold a joint conference at the United Nations next month to promote the two-state solution as the best path forward from the current conflict, and to potentially announce unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state – a move Israel rejects and says would amount to an award for Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack.
Barrot said France “was determined to integrate Israel’s security interests as essential components of the preparation of the June conference on the implementation of the two-state solution,” according to the French readout of Friday’s meeting.