Antoine Bienvault / Photo credit: Valery HACHE / AFP
France continues to negotiate for the release of several dozen hostages held by Hamas. Eight French nationals are among those kidnapped in Israel on October 7. Among them, young Ethan, 12, captured by terrorists in the Niz Or kibbutz, located near the Gaza Strip. The child has been hostage for more than 40 days now, just like Sahar and Erez, 16 and 12, who were kidnapped from the same kibbutz.
There is also Mia Shem, 21, taken by the terrorists while she was attending a rave party near Gaza. Her mother, Kerem Shem, Franco-Israeli, was in Paris a few days ago to ask for the release of her daughter. “I don’t know if she’s alive, if she’s dead. I can’t wait any longer, not even another hour. Mia, my daughter, has to come home,” she said. “What is happening in Israel could happen here tomorrow. We must all stand together to stop this and to bring all the hostages home.”
What conditions of detention for the hostages?
For these eight hostages held for more than 40 days, detention must be extremely difficult to live with. Georges Malbrunot, senior reporter and specialist in the Middle East, experienced this. He was held hostage in Iraq by the Islamic army for several months. “At the end of 30 days, we have overcome the shock of the first days and therefore we are starting to look into a slightly longer perspective of detention, saying to ourselves that we have managed to overcome the shock of the detention, of the capture , the first nights, the first psychological shocks, etc. So there is a first milestone that has been reached, while obviously hoping to be released quickly,” explains the journalist.
Paris is working on this liberation. Emmanuel Macron reiterated on Friday that the release of Franco-Israeli hostages was a priority for the government.