France held secret meetings with Hamas leaders, with the approval of French President Emmanuel Macron, three years before the October 7 attack, Channel 12 News reported on Motzei Shabbos.

Documents found in Gaza during the war revealed that the first meeting took place between a French delegation headed by a high-ranking intelligence official and Hamas leaders Mousa Abu Marzouk and Khaled Mashal on October 16, 2020, in Doha, Qatar.

France initiated the meeting

According to the report, the senior French official told the Hamas leaders, “We don’t want to talk only with the Palestinian Authority, but also with you. France has a historical connection to the Palestinian struggle.”

Mashal and Abu Marzouk responded, “Even if the international community supports the Zionist entity, we will defeat them. This land is ours. The resistance has continued for over a hundred years, and we will continue until victory.”

The French representatives did not express any objection to Hamas’s stated goal of destroying Israel.

In response to the report, a senior diplomat at the French Embassy said, “These baseless accusations are apparently intended to undermine the legitimacy of our efforts to promote a two-state solution.”

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)