Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the toll continues to rise for the French victims present there. There are now 19 dead, according to a final update given by the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, this Sunday. Without revealing their precise identities. By cross-checking our information using the media, the families’ social networks and information held by the Israeli army, we were able to provide a precise list of victims. Who were they? Where did they come from? 20 minutes looks back at their different profiles.
- Céline Ben-David Nagar, 32 years old
She had been missing for over a week already. Céline Ben-David Nagar, 32, was finally found dead, Yaëlle Krief, head of Céline’s research committee, told us this Monday evening.. The thirty-year-old’s relatives had not heard from the young woman since Saturday’s attack.
With a couple of friends, Céline went to the Tribe of Nova festival. The next day, her husband Ido Nagar, returned to her place without finding her trace. The following days, a message was sent to his loved ones. He was sent by a man who had taken refuge alongside Céline. “Since then, no news from anyone,” regretted his brother Samuel, during a press conference held on Thursday. With her husband Ido, Céline had a 6-month-old daughter, Eli.
Naomie Bikhar was also at the Nova Festival rave party organized in the middle of the Israeli desert when the Hamas attack broke out on Saturday morning. Originally from Créteil (Val-de-Marne), the young beautician had joined her boyfriend Oz in Israel a few months ago. “They were going to get married soon. A few days before her death, she was still choosing her wedding dress and veil. They both planned to settle in Israel,” Anet, a friend of the couple, told RMC.
He too was in the heart of the festival when the first ones were launched by Hamas. He was even one of the co-organizers of the event. Originally from Bordeaux, the music enthusiast with long blonde hair had been living in Israel for several years already. With his doctor father, the family would have moved as part of their “Aliyah”, the immigration of Jews to the land of Israel.
In the early hours of the attack, Avidan tried to take refuge under a stage to escape the shooting while remaining in contact with his loved ones by telephone. “Then there was silence,” Rabbi Rafi Lipner said at his funeral.
Aged 25, Dan Benhamou was also present at the trans and techno music festival. He arrived at the age of 5 from Marseille and was now sales director of a chain of eyeglass stores, according to Times of Israel.
“Our Dan is a dear brother, a true friend. Today I had to say goodbye to you with great sadness. You were a quiet guy who didn’t talk much but was very loud. At least your last moment was with a smile on your face and with a strange dance that I could never understand you,” one of his friends paid tribute to him on Facebook.
The young thirty-year-old was also on the music festival site. Not so much for the love of techno this time, but as part of his work. Social worker within the Elem association, she belongs to a mobile team whose aim is to provide support to young people in distress. “She didn’t come to party, she was killed from the start, as soon as the terrorists entered,” said her mother, Annie Levy, to France Télévisions. For her, her daughter had “a huge heart”. “Always there to give for everyone”. A few weeks ago, Sigal got engaged and was due to get married next January.
Marc Perez, 51, was not actually at the festival in the early days of the attack. But on Saturday morning, he received the call from his daughter, Maya. She is 20 years old and he hears crying at the end of the wires, but also shooting. “Listening only to his courage, he jumped in his car and went to the scene,” his lawyer Nathanaël Majster told RMC. Unfortunately, he did not see his daughter, who had managed to escape by running. When she came home, she thought she would find her father and mother. When she realized her father had gone to look for her, she was devastated.”
The family’s lawyer filed a complaint against Hamas before the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office and denounces “modus operandi of massacres and kidnappings of civilians”, also accusing Hamas of “genocidal intent”.
There were not only rave party participants among the French victims, but also soldiers. Binyamin Loeb, 23, was one of them. Originally from Yerres (Essonne), he was the son of the rabbi of Brunoy, Nathanaël Loeb. For several months, he had become a paratrooper in the Israeli army. He was killed during the battle of Kibbutz Kfar Azar. “He was sent to the front. […]. Unfortunately, he was hit by several bullets, and despite the care provided by his comrades, he did not survive,” his mother Judith Loeb told AFP. The young man should have returned to France in a few months to finish his computer science studies. At his funeral, his father said with emotion: “I had a dream for Binyamin. I wanted him to get married immediately after the army.”
Nathan Liard celebrated his 20th birthday just a few days ago. Present for six years in Israel, the young man was called to fight in the south of the country. But from the first hours, Nathan was touched. At his burial at the military cemetery in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, a family friend said: “He is a child who fought terrorism with all his strength. He was injured. He asked the ambulance to stop to go fight again because he saw terrorists entering houses. And for that, he lost his life. He was exceptionally courageous.”
- Valentin Ghnassia, 23 years old
Valentin Ghanassia, almost 23 years old, had been carrying out his military service in Israel since the end of his law studies in Montpellier, carried out from 2018 to 2022. He did not originally come from a very religious family. But during his studies, he became closer to the Olama association, which welcomes young Jews to share rites together but also debates. While there, he took Hebrew lessons and decided to join Israel. “He was not a religious person, his family was not active in the community. He sometimes went to the synagogue with his maternal grandfather, but he wondered a lot about his Jewishness,” underlined Yann Arnoux, the president of the association.
The identities of the other victims have not yet been released, but this article will be updated when we obtain new official information.
This Monday, 13 French people were still declared missing after the Hamas attack in Israel, according to the latest figures from the Quai d’Orsay.