(Paris) The three French minors, Hamas hostages who were released Monday evening, are doing well, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna rejoiced on RTL radio on Tuesday, while emphasizing “the psychological shock”.
“Incidental information that I have, yes,” they are fine, she said. “There is classic medical monitoring, as always in these cases, but they do not seem to have been tested beyond this terrible detention – 50 days – and what it may have represented in terms of psychological shock, difficulties in daily life “.
Erez and Sahar Kalderon, 12 and 16, and Eitan Yahalomi, 12, arrived in Israel Monday evening as part of the truce agreement with the Palestinian Islamist movement.
They were captured in Israel during the October 7 attacks.
The news “is good first of all because obviously this release is a real relief and we share it with the mother of Sahar and Erez, and the grandmother of Ethan,” added the minister who must speak with the families during the day.
“We share their joy, their immense relief even if we must know that these are families who are suffering, who have lost a loved one or who have not heard from a parent,” she stressed.
She recalled that President Emmanuel Macron and herself had met the families and that everyone remained mobilized to free the five other French people, some of whom are hostages, others still missing due to lack of proof of life.
Catherine Colonna also reported “difficult” negotiations between Qatar, which acts as an intermediary, Hamas and Israel.
“Until the last moment, we do not know,” she explained, stressing that it is Hamas, “a terrorist organization responsible for atrocious, abominable, barbaric attacks”, which is handing over lists to Qatar.
“Then the hostages who are called to be released are brought together by the same Hamas. We must bring them together, bring them back to the point of contact which is the ICRC,” she continued.
“But sometimes there are discussions about names, the number of people, the quality of the person, whether a person could not be found or gathered in time,” she also said, explaining that some hostages were in the hands of Hamas, others in the hands of Islamic Jihad, still others “in the hands of individuals”.
“At the end of the day (yesterday), we felt a big sigh of relief, I won’t hide it from you,” she finally confided.
While two other lists of hostages to be released are being prepared thanks to the two-day extension of the truce granted by Israel, Catherine Colonna once again stressed that France wanted a “lasting truce” to free “all the hostages “.
Some 240 people were kidnapped on October 7.
She also underlined the need to work for a ceasefire, for a political solution, “to contribute to de-escalation”.
“We are concerned about the risks of conflagration in the region. These risks remain real,” finally underlined Catherine Colonna.