Netanyahu heads to France, second official trip since return to premiership
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to travel to France on Thursday in his second official trip since becoming Israel’s prime minister in December.
Netanyahu is expected to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and will stay in France until Saturday evening. Other details of his travel itinerary have not been communicated to the public yet.
On Monday, Macron called Netanyahu to express his condolences over Friday night’s terrorist attack perpetrated by a 21-year-old Arab resident of Abu Tor, an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem. During the shooting, seven civilians were killed and three others were injured outside the Ateret Avraham synagogue in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood.
On Saturday, a 13-year-old Palestinian with a handgun shot and wounded a religious Jewish father and son walking outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
During Monday’s telephone conversation, Macron called on both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs to not “feed the spiral of violence” and “expressed his availability to contribute to the resumption of dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” the Elysée Palace said in a statement.
Macron called the terrorist attack “despicable” and expressed “France’s full and complete solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism.”
He also assured Israel of “France’s unwavering attachment to Israel’s security,” according to the Elysée Palace statement.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced that during their call, the two leaders “sharply condemned Iran’s active participation in harming innocent civilians in Ukraine” and agreed to continue the dialogue between Israel and France on various regional issues.
Netanyahu’s first official trip after returning to the Prime Minister’s Office was to Amman, Jordan, where he met with King Abdullah II.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
