French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday ordered a frigate deployed immediately to the waters off Gaza in an effort to fight arms smuggling and consolidate a fragile cease-fire.
A statement by Sarkozy's office said he is asking that a helicopter-carrier be sent to international waters off Gaza "in full cooperation with Egypt and Israel."
He ordered Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to immediately "coordinate closely" with the United States and Europe to propose other ways to fight arms smuggling on land and at sea.
later on that week ...
France summoned Israel's ambassador on Wednesday to complain after French diplomats were blocked for hours on the Jewish state's border with the Gaza Strip and Israeli soldiers fired warning shots at their convoy.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said France's consul general based in Jerusalem and several of his colleagues travelled to Gaza on Tuesday to assess the reopening of border crossings and to inspect projects funded by France.
"At the end of this visit, the convoy, which had planned to go back to Jerusalem in the evening, was blocked by the Israeli authorities for more than six hours at the Erez border crossing," Chevallier told reporters.
"The convoy, which also included other European diplomats, had two warning shots fired at it from Israeli soldiers," Chevallier added.
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