From the Liveblog of
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Ex-hostage Agam Berger to French FM: ‘Diplomatic solutions’ won’t resolve Hamas conflict
Nava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Former 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 ‘together.’ All these diplomatic solutions, I don’t know how to call them, it’s not going to work because it’s us or them,” Berger says in Hebrew during the meeting, seeming to reference the Hamas terror group in a clip shared by the Kan public broadcaster.
שורדת השבי אגם ברגר לשר החוץ של צרפת בארו: "ברגע שיש מלחמת קיום על הארץ שלנו, זה מה שנעשה. הם לא רוצים 'ביחד'. פתרונות דיפלומטיים לא יעבדו כי זה או אנחנו או הם" • בארו: "יש לשחרר את כל החטופים. עכשיו. על חמאס להתפרק מנשקו ולא להיות כלול בעתיד הפוליטי של עזה"@ishayb2003 pic.twitter.com/Xb7i96r65W
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 24, 2025
“If it were possible not to choose war, we wouldn’t choose it. But the moment there is a war for the existence of our land — that’s what we’re going to do,” she says.
Following the meeting, Barrot writes that he met “with the families of the hostages and Agam Berger…held in captivity for 473 days in inhumane conditions,” in a French-language post on X.
Avec les familles d'otages et Agam Berger, 21 ans, enlevée le 7 octobre, en captivité pendant 473 jours dans des conditions inhumaines.
Tous les otages doivent être libérés. Maintenant. Le Hamas doit être désarmé et exclu de l'avenir politique à Gaza. pic.twitter.com/JP28f2JE74
— Jean-Noël Barrot (@jnbarrot) May 24, 2025
“All the hostages must be freed. Now. Hamas must be disarmed and excluded from Gaza’s political future,” he writes.
The meeting took place at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris and was attended by the families of 20 of the 58 remaining hostages.
Among those in attendance were the families 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.
A French readout of the meeting will be circulated at a later time, according to the French embassy.
The meeting comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions with France, which has repeatedly called on Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza and lift restrictions on allowing humanitarian aid into the enclave.
France is also co-hosting a conference with Saudi Arabia next month to promote the two-state solution as a means of resolving the ongoing conflict.
The Times of Israel Community.