“France is working and has a certain role” in the release of French hostages held by Hamas, believes MP Meyer Habib

Israel and Hamas announced on Wednesday the conclusion of an agreement providing for the release of 50 Israeli hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners and a four-day truce in the Gaza Strip.

An agreement was officially approved this Wednesday night, between the Israeli government and Hamas, for a four-day truce in the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of 50 hostages in the hands of the Islamist movement, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. . “I accompanied the President of the Republic, he is putting all his energy into freeing all the hostages, and in particular the French hostages”reacted on franceinfo Meyer Habib, deputy for the 8th constituency of French people established outside France.

franceinfo: Can we hope that there will be French people among the hostages who will soon be released by Hamas?

Meyer Habib: This is a delicate question, because until the hostages are released and the Israelis welcome them, nothing is final. But we are hopeful that French hostages will be released among the fifty hostages, women, children, who will be released, in particular two or three French children. But until that’s done, I don’t want to give false hope.

But according to different sources, it seems that we have two to three French hostages, children, who have been released. Which does not prevent us from demanding the release of all the French hostages and, incidentally, of all the hostages. Nothing is certain, but what is certain is that France, myself, the President of the Republic in the first place, all of us are determined to do everything to free the hostages, in particular with the Qataris, Egypt.

For the moment, the release of 50 hostages is planned, in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. Do you think this truce should continue so that more hostages can be released?

This is also a delicate question. On the one hand, you have babies, children, women, Holocaust survivors; and on the other hand, Israel is going to release people who have blood on their hands, who have attempted suicide attacks, not of extreme seriousness where there were deaths, but there are people who were still in the hospital, and from which the terrorists will be released.

There was a very important dilemma there. I believe that the Israeli government made a good decision: that there is a truce is a good thing, even if it is determined, as it has said, to destroy Hamas. This will not necessarily be good for the Israelis, but also good for the Palestinian population, who are suffering. We must free the hostages and we must also destroy Hamas, to free both the Palestinians and the State of Israel from this cancer which is a jihadist and Islamist organization.

Do you have any news on the fate of all the hostages, are there any concerns about their state of health?

We have big fears about certain hostages. Unfortunately, I have the fear, and almost the certainty, that some are dead, because the conditions are extremely difficult, because some must have been injured, because we are also faced with barbarians who, on a whim, can kill one or the other. We have no news: this is why the Red Cross has an extremely important role. We have seen little of it until now, it is the moment for it to become active, because only the Red Cross can answer this question of the state of health of the hostages.