Ex-Hamas hostage: ‘Diplomacy is pointless, it’s us or them’

After enduring 473 days in captivity, Agam Berger met with France’s top diplomat to share a hard truth about Hamas.

By World Israel News Staff

A young Israeli soldier who was kidnapped from her army base on October 7th and held hostage in Gaza for some 14 months told France’s Foreign Minister that diplomatic agreements are not effective when dealing with the Hamas terror group.

Hamas isn’t interested in coexistence, Agam Berger told French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Paris during a meeting on Friday.

“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 told Barrot in Hebrew-language remarks, in a clip widely published by Israeli media outlets.

“If it were possible not to choose war, we wouldn’t choose it,” she added. “But the moment that there is a war for the existence of our country — that’s what we’re going to do.”

Later on Friday, Barrot posted pictures on his X account of his meeting with Berger and hostage families.

Berger was “held captive for 473 days in inhumane conditions,” Barrot wrote.

“All hostages must be released. Now,” he stressed in the French-language message. “Hamas must be disarmed and excluded from the political future of Gaza.”

Berger’s meeting with the French diplomat comes on the heels of President Emmanuel Macron slamming Israel for its expanded offensive in Gaza.

Macron, along with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, recently released a statement threatening sanctions and other “concrete actions” against Israel, aimed at forcing the Jewish State to end its war against the terror group.

The statement called the renewal of intense fighting against Hamas “egregious” and “disproportionate.”

Macron, Starmer, and Carney also referenced “intolerable levels of human suffering” in the Gaza Strip, though they failed to mention Hamas’ crimes against Gazan civilians, including murdering them for protesting against the war.