Europe 1 via AFP/Photo credits: ADNAN BECI / AFP
modified to
12:53 p.m., October 20, 2023
This Friday, the Head of State speaks by videoconference with “the families of the French hostages held in Gaza” since they were captured in Israel during the attack launched on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Emmanuel Macron speaks this Friday by videoconference with “the families of French hostages held in Gaza” since they were captured in Israel during the attack launched on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, it was reported learned from the Elysée.
Surrounded in particular by his Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, the Secretary General of the Elysée Alexis Kohler and his diplomatic advisor Emmanuel Bonne, the Head of State began this meeting remotely from the presidential palace.
Intense discussions are underway
The French president promised that France was doing everything in its “power” to obtain the “release” of the hostages, saying on Tuesday that “intense discussions” were underway. “They are progressing, we are monitoring these discussions hour by hour,” he added, stressing that Paris had “contacts, obviously, with the Israeli authorities”, but also with “intermediate friendly powers with Hamas to obtain the release of our hostages and all hostages”.
He assured the family of Mia Shem, a young Franco-Israeli woman kidnapped, a video of which was broadcast on Monday by the Palestinian Islamist organization, and all the relatives of people missing since the October 7 attack, of his “support” and his “affection”.
Mia Shem’s mother on Tuesday begged “world leaders” to free her daughter. The toll of French victims killed in Hamas attacks against Israel is at this stage 28 dead and seven people missing, including some hostages of Hamas.