'Let us stay united,' Macron pleads

France’s interior minister has ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts since Hamas attacked Israel over the weekend. President Emmanuel Macron urged French people not to allow the war in the Middle East erupt into tensions at home.

Soon before Macron spoke in a televised address to the nation about the Mideast conflict, Paris police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who had defied a ban and demonstrated Thursday against the Israeli government.

“Let us not bring ideological adventures here (to France) by imitation or by projection. Let us not add national fractures ... to international fractures,” Macron pleaded. “Let us stay united.”

With several French-Israeli citizens believed to be held hostage by Hamas, Macron pledged that France would protect its Jewish citizens and be “ruthless toward all those who bear hate” and noted concerns about hostility toward France’s Muslims too.

Fighting in the Middle East in the past has led to tensions in France, which is estimated to have the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the US, and the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. (AP)