ReutersThe time for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has come “now,” said Foreign Minister David Lammy during a visit to Israel with his French counterpart Stéphane Séjourné.
During the first joint British-French visit in over ten years, the two met Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and also visited the occupied Palestinian territories.
This coincided with the start of a new round of ceasefire talks in Doha, where negotiators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt are meeting with an Israeli delegation.
Following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, there are fears that a full-scale war involving Iran could break out in the region.
Western countries are urging Iran to refrain from retaliating against Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the attack.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon is also threatening retaliation for the killing of one of its highest-ranking commanders by Israel in an air strike in Beirut.
It is hoped that a new ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages would lead to an easing of tensions in the region.
Speaking to journalists, Lammy said Israeli ministers had told him they hoped we were close to an agreement.
He added: “Now is the time to reach an agreement that will see the return of the hostages, the provision of necessary humanitarian aid to Gaza and an end to the fighting.”
The US said the talks had made a “promising start” but that “much work remains to be done”.
Hamas has stated that it will not participate in the negotiations for the time being, but mediators will convey messages to the armed group’s representatives stationed there.
The group, which is proscribed as a terrorist organization in Israel, Britain and other countries, claimed that Israel had added new conditions to an earlier proposal supported by the United States and around the world.
Mr Lammy had previously warned of a “dangerous moment for the Middle East”.
“The risk that the situation will get out of control is increasing. Any Iranian attack would have devastating consequences for the region,” he said.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said: “It is never too late for peace.
“We must avoid at all costs a regional war that would have terrible consequences. We must achieve a ceasefire agreement and the release of all hostages.”
Mr Lammy also reacted to the events in the occupied West Bank during the night. where a Palestinian was shot dead when dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a village.
“The images of night-time arson and burning of buildings, Molotov cocktails thrown at cars, widespread rioting and the expulsion of people from their homes are abhorrent and I condemn them in the strongest possible terms,” he said.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was taking the unrest “seriously” and promised that those responsible for any crimes would be “caught and prosecuted.”
Mr Lammy expressed the hope that the swift investigation promised by Mr Netanyahu would ensure that those responsible were brought to justice.
It is the latest in a series of attacks by extremist settlers on Palestinian villages in the West Bank, where violence has increased since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza.
In response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage, the Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said on Thursday that at least 40,005 people had been killed in the area since then.
This figure, which makes no distinction between fighters and civilians, is often disputed by the Israeli government but widely accepted by UN agencies.
