The Quai d’Orsay hopes that some of its nationals will be among the first group of hostages released on Friday. At this stage, there is no evidence of life for many of them.
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Forty French nationals were killed during the attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7, according to the latest report communicated by Elisabeth Borne. Eight others are still missing. Some are probably being held hostage by the Palestinian movement. And their loved ones live in anguish, while an agreement provides for the release of 50 women and children from Friday, November 24, according to a Qatari official.
If the names of the first released have not been communicated at this stage, “the families, who are promised partial releases in dribs and drabs, are in agony”, commented lawyer Patrick Klugman, who represents four of them, on franceinfo. Franceinfo returns to the identity of these French and binationals from whom we have been waiting for news or proof of life for almost seven weeks.
Mia Schem, 21 years old
French diplomacy evokes eight compatriots carried “disappeared”, because it is difficult to know more about the fate of the people concerned. Only Mia Schem, a 21-year-old young woman, appeared captive on a video released by Hamas on October 16.
Wounded in the arm, between two explosions, she explained that she was in Gaza and demanded her release, in a sequence shot under duress. The young woman was taken by the terrorists while she was participating in the Tribe of Nova festival, attended by more than 3,000 people.
According to her mother Keren Schem, interviewed by France 24, the young woman was learning the profession of tattoo artist. “Mia has a big heart, I have four children, but she is always the one who is there for others, who cooks for her brothers and sisters, even at 4 a.m. It’s my best friend. They need to bring my baby back.”she explained in The Parisian.
Elya Toledano, 27 years old
His friend Elya Toledano, 27, has also been missing since the attack. “He would have been kidnapped [et emmené] in Gazatestified his brother Daniel on BFMTV. It is Israeli intelligence that gives us this information.” This relative claims to have voice recordings, on which the victim calls for help, before his capture. “My brother is only 27, and all he did was go to a party”he also declared at the end of October, during a solidarity evening in Paris. “Not knowing anything for so long is maybe worse than knowing he’s dead.”
Orion Hernandez-Radoux, 30 years old
Franco-Mexican tourist Orion Hernandez-Radoux, 30, was also at the Tribe of Nova festival in the Negev desert. Her German friend, Shani Louk, was killed by Islamists, as her mother announced to German media NTV. During the Hamas attack, he first appeared to have managed to escape by car with another friend, his mother told Parisian. “We don’t know how, but we know they were separatedshe continued. His friend was found dead three days later, and he was taken to Gaza.”
Erez, 12, Sahar, 16, and Ofer Kalderon, 53
Erez and Sahar Kalderon, aged 12 and 16 respectively, were kidnapped along with their father Ofer, 53. They were in Kibbutz Nir Oz, a few hundred meters from the Gaza Strip, when the attack took place. Their older sister Gaia was in another house and was able to escape the attack. “I have never seen so much rage befall innocent children”, she testified during a press conference. The Israeli army says around 100 village residents were killed, and around 80 were captured.
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“My family exploded”, declared their mother Hadas, also a survivor, to France Télévisions. She has since increased her speeches and regularly participates in demonstrations organized in Tel Aviv to demand the return of the hostages. “If my children come back, I will have to tell them that their father, my ex-husband, is still there. That’s not the end of the story.”
Eitan, 12 years old, and Ohad Yahalomi, 49 years old
It was in the same kibbutz that 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi was captured and taken on a motorcycle by the Islamists, alongside a foreign worker. His mother Bat-Sheva was on another two-wheeler, with her daughter Yael and her one-year-old baby, according to her account in the newspaper Times of Israel. “We left for Gaza. Near the border, we saw a lot of bodies on the road”, she testified. The two-wheeler that was transporting them, she said, eventually crashed into a field. Father Ohad, a French-Israeli, is still missing after being injured during the attack, according to Bat-Sheva’s testimony.