French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025, at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron says France intends to work with other nations to ensure “the full implementation” of the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal.
“All of the hostages must be freed as soon as possible, and the president of the Republic repeats repeated his solidarity with the Israeli people in this regard,” his office adds in a statement.
Macron “is delighted that the Israeli cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement” and “he warmly thanked the Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators who contributed to it,” it says.
Macron spoke Saturday by phone with the families of two French-Israeli hostages still in captivity, Ofer Calderon and Ohad Yahalomi, the statement adds.
The two “have been living for 15 months in an anguish that the entire French nation shares…. Ohad and Ofer are now both on the first list of hostages to be released,” it adds.
Also, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expresses concerns about the hostages’ health.
“I don’t know in what condition they will return. We don’t know how many are alive or dead and, among the living, in what psychological state we’ll find them in. But the hostages will be progressively released. It’s a good thing,” he tells French broadcaster BFMTV.
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
