In the the wake of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis is attending a “humanitarian conference” in Paris on Thursday, initiated by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The Greek PM stressed at the gathering in Paris where he was greeted by French President Macron that “Our first thoughts are with the families of the victims and hostages, while we are deeply concerned about the escalation on the ground in recent days.”
Mitsotakis went on to allude to the Cypriot proposal for the creation of a sea corridor for humanitarian aid, stressing that “Greece – along with Cyprus – is a country in the immediate neighborhood and we are ready to contribute to every effort to alleviate the people’s plight. We have already airlifted a first shipment of humanitarian aid to El Arish airport.”
The goal of the gathering, taking place at the Champs-Élysées, is to explore the prospects of opening a corridor for aid to reach the Palestinian civilians trapped in the conflict zone.
Representatives of Arab nations, Western powers and members of the Group of 20 major economies are among those attending the conference, but Israel was not invited and few heads of state, government or foreign ministers were there. Expectations for concrete results are low if there is no pause in fighting.
Participants are discussing a proposal to create a maritime corridor to ship humanitarian aid into Gaza or evacuate the wounded, the establishment of field hospitals and financial assistance to ease the growing humanitarian crisis.
The Israeli government is not represented at the conference, but Macron, who contacted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, informed the Israeli leader he would brief him about the outcome of the meeting, according to the French presidency.
The French leader contacted via phone Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, whose countries play a key role as mediating in allowing aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority is represented by its prime minister and Egypt, which controls Rafah crossing, the only crossing to Gaza that does not lead to Israel, will send a ministerial delegation.
Israel has ruled out an immediate ceasefire that might help strengthen Hamas. The United States has echoed the Israeli view, warning that a ceasefire could help Hamas regroup, but has called for humanitarian pauses.
