“An immediate, durable and observed humanitarian truce is absolutely necessary and must be able to lead to a ceasefire,” Colonna told reporters during a visit to Qatar.

“A consensus has been found on this point among the international community,” she said, adding that France was working to have a resolution on a truce to put before the UN Security Council.

Her comments, which came after talks with her Qatari counterpart, follow similar calls for a humanitarian pause by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on his latest tour of the region since the October 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Such pauses were a key focus of Blinken’s talks in Israel on Friday, but the proposal drew short shrift from hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu said he would not agree to a “temporary truce” with Hamas until the Islamist group releases more than 240 Israeli and foreign hostages it abducted on October 7.

Since the shock Hamas attack, which Israeli officials say killed 1,400, mostly civilians, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip to destroy Hamas, levelling entire city blocks.

The health ministry in Gaza, the narrow territory under Hamas control since 2007, says more than 9,480 people, mostly women and children, have been killed
in Israeli strikes and the intensifying ground campaign.

France, which will host a humanitarian conference on Gaza on Thursday, demanded an Israeli explanation on Friday after a strike on the French Institute cultural centre in Gaza.

Agence France-Presse has also demanded an inquiry after its Gaza bureau was significantly damaged by a separate strike.

“The fight against terrorism must be carried out in conformity with international humanitarian law,” Colonna said.

“It’s an international obligation to protect civilians. Too many of them are dying in strikes on Gaza. Schools, hospitals, humanitarian workers, journalists must in particular be safeguarded.”