Macron: Tougher steps against Israel over Gaza war to be decided on in ‘next couple of days’

By Lazar Berman

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5 June 2025, 3:42 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

France's President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a joint press conference with Brazil's president (not in picture) following a meeting at The Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, on June 5, 2025. (Christophe PETIT TESSON / POOL / AFP)

France’s President Emmanuel Macron says he will decide “in the next couple of days” whether France will harden its position against Israel and take concrete steps over the Gaza war.

Macron could recognize a Palestinian state around a UN conference on the topic, which France is hosting with Saudi Arabia later this month.

Standing alongside Macron at a press conference, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accuses Israel of carrying out “premeditated genocide” in Gaza.

“It’s a premeditated genocide from a far-right government waging a war against the interests of its own people,” he says.