The French Minister of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, is embarking on a Middle East tour from Tuesday to Friday, including a visit to Israel. This marks the first visit by a French defense minister to the Israeli state since the year 2000.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed in a concise statement that the tour comes at the request of President Emmanuel Macron and will also include several other Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. This comes more than a month after the outbreak of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

The statement further clarified that Lecornu will address issues such as hostages and missing persons, especially the French citizens among them.

Additionally, he will discuss humanitarian support and the protection of civilians in Gaza, along with other points related to avoiding any form of escalation, combating terrorism, and security measures for building a political solution.

It is worth noting that around 40 French citizens were killed, and eight others went missing, including hostages, in an attack carried out by the Hamas movement inside Israel on October 7th.