UPDATE - France announces retaliatory expulsion of Algerian diplomats

ADDS MORE REMARKS FROM JEAN-NOEL BARROT, FOREIGN MINISTRY

By Ilayda Cakirtekin

ISTANBUL (AA) – France announced on Wednesday the expulsion of new Algerian diplomats in retaliation for the expulsion of the French Embassy employees from Algeria.

“Our response is immediate, firm, and strictly proportionate at this stage, with the same demand that is, the return to Algeria of all agents holding diplomatic passports who do not currently have a visa,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said during an interview with broadcaster BFM TV.

Without specifying the number of expelled agents, Barrot signaled that they could take further measures depending on how the situation develops.

The French Foreign Ministry also confirmed in a written statement that the charge d'affaires of the Algerian Embassy in Paris was summoned Tuesday and informed that France would adopt the same measures toward Algeria.

The decision came after the Algerian Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the French charge d'affaires in Algiers and ordered the immediate expulsion of 15 French embassy employees over "serious breaches" of diplomatic protocol.

Barrot was also asked about the situation in Gaza, which he described as an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”

“For almost two and a half months now, the Israeli government has maintained a completely airtight blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid, medicine, and food into this enclave,” he noted.

Since March 2, Israel has kept Gaza crossings closed to food, medical, and humanitarian aid, deepening an already humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

Nearly 53,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.