Paris (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that expanding Israeli settlements threatened a Palestinian state and US-led peace efforts, as France hosted Arab and European ministers to find ways to boost the Palestinians after a Gaza ceasefire deal was announced.
Macron hailed the ceasefire deal as a "great hope" for the region, but said the "acceleration" of settlement construction in the occupied West Bank was an "existential threat" to a Palestinian state.
It was "not only unacceptable and contrary to international law" but "fuels tensions, violence, and instability", he told the meeting in Paris on Thursday.
