French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Wednesday that Israel’s newly approved plan to capture Gaza City would be a “true disaster” for Israelis and Palestinians alike and could pull the Middle East into a state of “permanent war.” Macron’s statement followed Israel’s decision to mobilise about 60,000 reservists for the assault, part of what Israeli media have called Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2. He said that, after separate phone calls with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, all three leaders agreed the offensive risked inflaming an already volatile region. The French leader repeated his call for an immediate and lasting cease-fire, the mass delivery of humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages and the creation of an international stabilisation mission in Gaza. His latest intervention comes amid increasingly strained relations between Paris and Tel Aviv over France’s push to recognise a Palestinian state.