France to host meeting on Gaza cease-fire talks
French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius, right, and US Secretary of State John Kerry. AP
PARIS — More than a half-dozen foreign ministers including US Secretary of State John Kerry will hold a meeting in France to press for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The French Foreign Ministry said Friday that Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, along with his counterparts from Britain, Germany, Italy, the European Union, Turkey and Qatar, will attend the Saturday meeting.
Besides supporting an Egyptian cease-fire plan — rejected by Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers — the goal “is to bring together international efforts so that as quickly as possible conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza emerge,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Roman Nadal.
Kerry has been in the Middle East seeking a seven-day humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, but efforts have failed. More than 820 Palestinians and 38 people in Israel have died in the Gaza war.
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