After Israeli attacks, France urges respect for truce in Gaza

A day after deadly attacks by Israel against Hamas members in the Gaza strip, France urged all sides to maintain the fragile truce between them and said it was closely monitoring developments. Israelis planes attacked Gaza Wednesday and two ranking Hamas officials were killed and another injured. Israel claims they were "terrorists" planning attacks against the Jewish State. "Concerning (the Israeli attacks) the position of France is well known: We are in favour of respecting the truce in Gaza by all the parties. We are closely following the evolution of the situation," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said at a briefing. Separately, in answer to KUNA questions, Lalliot said that France favoured a role for Egypt in promoting reconciliation between the estranged Hamas and Fatah movements in Palestine. "We want that Egypt can contribute to inter-Palestinian reconciliation" and it is important this take place with the leadership of President Mahmud Abbas "and that it respect the principles of the peace process," the spokesman remarked. He noted that this issue, among others, was addressed by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius when he met in Cairo earlier this week with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.