French people repatriated from Israel arrived Thursday evening in the first flight to Paris from Tel Aviv since the launch of the Hamas offensive on Israeli soil.
The first plane repatriating French nationals from Tel Aviv landed on the evening of Thursday, October 12 on the tarmac of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport. They arrived through the usual Air France terminal. Simply, the passengers of this special flight were welcomed a little apart by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, and the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune.
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This plane landed, a little late, a little after 9 p.m., with around 377 French people on board, many of them so-called vulnerable people, that is to say rather elderly or on the contrary very young. A father also passed by with his four young children, happy to have returned, but also very worried about this situation.
A reunion full of emotion
Babies in strollers were also seen. There were 68 children in total on this flight, including a 16-year-old girl. Her name is Tamar and she was in high school in Israel, alone there. Her whole family came to pick her up this evening. Her mother was kind enough to answer us, while squeezing her daughter’s wrist very tightly. “A relief, but we are still deeply affected by everything that is happening there [en Israël]declares the mother. We think very, very much of them. Obviously we’re relieved to have our daughter back, but what happened there was a disaster.”
The emotion is very present for this reunion. When we ask this family and Tamar what the program will be for this evening, the young girl responds about rest: “I’m going to sleep!” “She’s tiredexplains a family member, because, between the missiles and the calls for shelter, I think she’s exhausted. Have a good night’s sleep and we’ll see tomorrow.”
Many people feel this mixture of relief and fatigue after this ordeal. Whether he had been living in Israel for a long time or was just passing through because there were also many tourists, who were on pilgrimage, particularly in Jerusalem. They were also delighted to have been able to be repatriated by this first special flight organized Thursday evening by the Quai d’Orsay. Other repatriation flights are planned for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.