Macron speaks with Netanyahu, but doesn’t retract his call for arms embargo
PM says he expects friends to stand behind Israel as France pushes for ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, a day after calling the French leader’s actions a ‘disgrace’
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone on Sunday, a day after the latter called for an arms embargo on Israel, sparking outrage in Jerusalem.
The two leaders “acknowledge[d] their differences of opinion, as well as their desire to be well understood by each other,” said a French readout of the call, but indicated that the Macron would not back off his opposition to arms sales to Israel, while its troops continue to fight in Gaza and Lebanon.
“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter in an interview aired on Saturday, adding that France is not sending any arms to Israel.
In response, Netanyahu labeled Macron’s call for an arms embargo on Israel “a disgrace.”
On Sunday, the two spoke “in complete frankness and with respect for the friendship between France and Israel,” said Paris.
“It is expected that Israel’s friends stand behind it, and don’t place limitations on it that only strengthen the Iranian terror axis,” Netanyahu told Macron, according to the Israeli readout.

The premier said the IDF operations against Hezbollah, which Macron opposes, “create an opportunity to change the reality in Lebanon toward stability, security, and peace in the entire region.”
Macron, according to his office, reiterated France’s commitment to Israel’s security and noted that France participated in the defense of Israel against Iranian attacks.
“On the eve of the first anniversary of Hamas’ terrorist offensive against Israel, he expressed the solidarity of the French people with the Israeli people, particularly the victims, the hostages and their loved ones,” according to Macron’s office. “Like everyone, Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism. Attacks against Israel and its citizens must cease, whether they are carried out by Iran or its proxies in the region.”
Macron also said that “the time for a ceasefire has now come.”

“The arms deliveries, the prolongation of the war in Gaza and its extension to Lebanon cannot produce the security expected by the Israelis and by everyone in the region,” Macron told Netanyahu. “We must immediately make the decisive effort that will allow us to develop the political solutions necessary for the security of Israel and everyone in the Middle East.”
Also Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said that troops had encircled the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya, as pat of a new ground operation targeting efforts by Hamas to reestablish itself there.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will be in Israel tomorrow. He is scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and will be at Re’im for a tribute to the victims of the Nova music festival massacre one year after the Hamas invasion.
France, which administered Lebanon from 1920-1944, maintains close cultural and diplomatic ties with the country.

The IDF continued its campaign of airstrikes in Lebanon on Sunday, with the military saying it carried out a series of pinpoint attacks on Hezbollah targets in Beirut overnight, including several weapons depots and other terror infrastructure.
Israel says it has widened operations against Hezbollah to enable the safe return to their homes in the north of some 60,000 Israeli civilians who were evacuated when the Iran-backed terror group began firing rockets on October 8. Hezbollah said the attacks were in support of the Palestinians in Gaza during the war sparked by Hamas’s devastating onslaught a day earlier.
So far, the skirmishes in the north have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, and — excluding the soldiers killed in the ground operation — the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists.
Two soldiers were killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there were also several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF’s toll in the ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon stands at nine.
Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some in Syria. Another 94 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.
These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September, including a ground operation in which the military says at least 440 Hezbollah operatives have been killed.