ISTANBUL

France’s foreign minister on Monday denounced attacks on civilians in Gaza, particularly those seeking food aid, calling such attacks "unacceptable.”

“Eighty years after the creation of the United Nations, we cannot accept civilians, women and children being targeted when they go to food distribution places. That is unacceptable,” Jean-Noel Barrot told a high-level international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at UN headquarters in New York.

Barrot was speaking alongside his Saudi counterpart at the opening of the international conference aimed at advancing peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question and implementing a two-state solution.

He said the large attendance showed a growing consensus within the international community to end the war in Gaza and chart a political way forward.

“This conference must be a turning point and a transformational juncture,” Barrot said.

“We must work on the ways and means to go from the end of the war in Gaza to the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he added.

He reiterated that only a political two-state solution can meet the legitimate aspirations of both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace and security.

"Faced with the … unprecedented acceleration of the Israeli settlement building policy and the West Bank, the prospects for a viable Palestinian state must be preserved through the implementation of concrete measures," he urged.

To support diplomatic efforts, Barrot highlighted the work of eight international working groups established under the conference framework.

Their task, he said, is to identify concrete contributions across political, security, economic and humanitarian areas to make the two-state solution a reality.

“This war has lasted too long and must end,” Barrot said.

“The guns must be silenced and give way to an immediate and lasting ceasefire. The suffering of civilians in Gaza must stop," he said.