Israel-Hamas war: what we know about the nine French people held hostage or missing

The fate of the hostages in the hands of Hamas is at the heart of Emmanuel Macron's visit to Israel this Tuesday. Their release for all, “without distinction” is the “main objective” of the French president, he affirmed this morning to his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog. “We are working on this with Israel and other partners,” he added alongside the Prime Minister of the Jewish state Benjamin Netanyahu. Since Saturday October 21, the Islamist terrorist organization, which launched its offensive in Israeli territory on October 7, has been releasing its prisoners in dribs and drabs - there are still 220 of them according to the Israeli army. Last night, two Israeli women aged 85 and 79 were released. This release comes three days after that of two Americans.

According to a new report communicated by the French president this Tuesday, at least 30 French nationals were killed - the heaviest death toll since the attack of July 14, 2016 in Nice (86 dead) - and nine are "still missing or detained in custody". hostage". The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs specifies to Le Figaro that this assessment is updated “as new information reaches [it] from the families or the Israeli authorities, in particular those responsible for identifying the bodies of the victims” .

The Quai d'Orsay, which "never communicates on the identities of the hostages since they have not been made public by the families themselves", however ensures that it is in contact with "all" of these last. Having just arrived in Tel Aviv, Emmanuel Macron spoke in a private room at Ben-Gurion airport with the families of these nationals. Thirty people were present to represent 18 families.

Among these families, the relatives of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old Franco-Israeli detained by Hamas. On October 7, she participated in the Tribe of Nova rave party in the Negev desert. The attack left at least 250 dead according to Israeli emergency services. She is the only French national whose hostage-taking has been confirmed.

On Monday October 16, she was in fact identified by a member of her family in a video broadcast by Hamas on Telegram. The footage showed a haggard woman, visibly injured, lying under a red sheet, receiving treatment on her right arm, which had a scar running through it. Speaking in Hebrew, the hostage says she is being held in Gaza and claims to be treated well. In reaction to the broadcast of this video, Emmanuel Macron denounced “the ignominy represented by the taking of innocent people hostage and their odious staging”.

There is no certainty as to the situation of the eight other French people. Notably Eitan, 12 years old, the youngest identified missing person. Coming from a family living in a kibbutz of Nir Oz in the south of Israel, a few hundred meters from the border with Gaza, the boy was kidnapped on the day of the assault by terrorists on motorcycles with his parents and his two sisters. To this day, his father Ohad, 49, remains missing. His mother and two sisters managed to escape during the transfer to the Gaza Strip. Thursday October 12, during a press conference for the families of certain missing French people, Eitan's mother, Batsheva Yaalomi, told the chilling story of the attack on her kibbutz and her escape.

Also read: Emmanuel Macron in Israel: the challenges of a diplomatic gamble

During the same press conference, Gaya Kalderon, 21, confirmed the disappearance of five people from her family. “My father, my sister, my brother, my grandmother and my cousin have disappeared,” she explained. The grandmother, Carmela, 80, and cousin, Noya, 12, suffering from autism, were found dead last week. Until the Hamas attack, they lived in the Nir Oz kibbutz, close to the Gaza Strip.

Presumed hostage at first, Karin Journo, 24, was also at the Tribe of Nova festival. His family learned of his death on October 17. Just like Céline Ben David-Nagar, who also participated in the rave in the desert, died, Crif confirmed on X (ex-Twitter) Monday October 16. The 32-year-old Franco-Israeli was the mother of a six-month-old baby. She spent her childhood in France before moving to Israel in 2006.