Released Israeli hostage Agam Berger tells French FM that 'diplomatic solutions' won't solve existential conflict with Hamas

The released Israeli hostage Agam Berger told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday in Paris that diplomatic solutions will not end the conflict with the radical terrorist organization Hamas, which openly opposes Israel’s very existence. 

“They don’t want [to live] ‘together.’ All of these diplomatic solutions… it’s not going to work because it’s us or them,” Berger explained at the French Foreign Ministry, which, according to the French embassy in Israel, hosted the families of 20 out of the remaining 58 hostages who are still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Berger emphasized that while Israel prefers a diplomatic solution to the conflict, achieving genuine peace is impossible with a genocidal jihadist ideology like that of Hamas.

“If it were possible not to choose war, we wouldn’t choose it. But the moment that there is a war for the existence of our country – that’s what we’re going to do,” Berger said. She urged the French foreign minister to adopt a firm stance against Hamas, which refuses to release the remaining hostages and disarm. 

The 20-year-old Berger was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, from the Israeli military’s Nahal Oz observation base close to the Gaza border. She was released on January 30, 2025, during the internationally brokered ceasefire and hostage deal. 

The French foreign minister wrote after the meeting on 𝕏 that he had met  “with the families of the hostages and Agam Berger,” who was “held in captivity for 473 days in inhumane conditions.”

“All the hostages must be freed. Now. Hamas must be disarmed and excluded from Gaza’s political future,” the French top diplomat wrote without elaborating on how to achieve this goal diplomatically when Hamas has consistently refused to release the remaining hostages and disarm. 

“Minister Barrot heard the delegation’s plea for help and support in order to secure the release of hostages still being held in Gaza,” stated a readout from the meeting shared by the French embassy. 

The readout continued by stressing that Barrot “reiterated that Hamas was a brutal terrorist organization that needed to be fought, disarmed and excluded from any political solution in Gaza,” and that “France had taken sanctions against Hamas and its members, it was ready to contribute to the definition of a lasting political solution to the conflict, without Hamas.” 

The French foreign minister reportedly “reiterated France’s absolute commitment to an immediate and unconditional release of all remaining hostages.” 

“France had worked to deliver medicine to hostages in Gaza and was activating all diplomatic channels, most notably with mediating Arab countries, to enable their release,” it added.

The French top diplomat reportedly also “recalled France’s steadfast commitment to Israel’s security,” referring to the French military’s contribution last year in intercepting ballistic missiles and drones fired by Iran and the Houthis against Israel. Paris concluded that it “was fully engaged to ensure that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon.”

The meeting between the French foreign minister and the families of Israeli hostages took place amid diplomatic tensions between Paris and Jerusalem. 

France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting next month a conference that is expected to explicitly promote the establishment of a “Palestinian state” while ignoring Israel’s legitimate security concerns. 

France, the United Kingdom and Canada recently threatened to impose sanctions on Israel if the Jewish state does not halt its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza and restore the full inflow of humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by accusing the French, British and Canadian governments of rewarding Hamas’s Oct. 7 aggression against Israel as Israel is fighting for its existence. 

“By asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed and by demanding a Palestinian state, the leaders in London, Ottawa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on Oct. 7 while inviting more such atrocities,” Netanyahu stated.