French President Emmanuel Macron has held phone calls with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to discuss ways of avoiding an escalation in the Middle East crisis, Reuters reports.

The French presidency said Macron, in his call with Netanyahu, reaffirmed Paris’s desire to avoid an escalation in the Middle East and to stand up to what it said were Iran’s efforts to destabilise the region.

The French presidency added that Macron had also reiterated to Netanyahu that France wanted an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and said Paris was working to ease tensions arising from clashes on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

In a separate statement, Egyptian presidential spokesperson Ahmed Fahmy said Macron had also discussed the Middle East crisis with the Egyptian leader and that both Macron and Sisi had agreed on the need to avoid further regional escalation.