'France, Israel in solidarity over Toulouse shooting'

French FM Alain Juppe meets with Peres ahead of funerals for victims of the Toulouse Jewish school shooting.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Alain Juppe (R) 311 (photo credit: Regis Duvignau / Reuters)
Alain Juppe (R) 311
(photo credit: Regis Duvignau / Reuters)
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe met with President Shimon Peres Wednesday morning in Jerusalem, and expressed France's solidarity with Israel on the day of the funerals for the four victims of the Toulouse Jewish school shooting.
The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
Juppe said that he had come "in order to express and represent our solidarity with families of the victims that were killed in this intolerable murder."
Peres thanked Juppe for coming to Israel to attend the funeral, and the two both spoke of the special relationship between the two countries.
"The blood of both of our nations was spilled in this murder," the French foreign minister said, stressing that the entire French nation was mourning the murder on this day, regardless of religion.
He emphasized the importance of Israeli security, and said that it would be only a matter of minutes or hours until the murderer was arrested.A shootout between French police and a suspect in the murders was taking place in Toulouse, France. Three police officers were wounded.
"I have no doubt that we will win," said Peres, "because we represent human justice."
A French military plane carrying the bodies of the four victims, Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, his two children Aryeh, six, and Gavriel, three; and eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego, arrived in Israel early Wednesday morning.
Jerusalem Post religious affairs reporter Jeremy Sharon will be tweeting live from the ceremony