They denounce “a deafening silence”. Some 1,500 people demonstrated in Paris on Sunday, six months after Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel, “for the release of Israeli hostages” held in Gaza, we learned from the police headquarters.
Gathered at the end of the afternoon at the Trocadéro, facing the Eiffel Tower, the demonstrators, gathered at the call of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), chanted “Free the hostages” several times.
Enrico Macias and Patrick Bruel present
Some held signs reading: “Your silence is deafening.” “We have forgotten these hostages in the world,” Agnès Antoine, 56, told AFP, holding the portrait of Gad Haggaï, an Israeli septuagenarian “kidnapped and executed in captivity”.
“We decided to come today because it’s half a year. That’s six months of a person’s life about which we no longer know anything. France and the rest of the world are completely turned (against Israel) and Israel is alone,” she said.
“I am here to ask all French people for the release of the hostages unconditionally and as quickly as possible,” singer Enrico Macias said from the podium. “We have gone through tragic events in our history (…). But we will get through this,” he added. “Six months these people have been detained, martyred, raped. We are here for them, we hope for a comeback,” also declared singer Patrick Bruel.
250 people kidnapped
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in Israel, the majority civilians killed the same day, according to an AFP count. made from official Israeli figures. More than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack and taken to Gaza where 129 remain detained, including 34 who died, according to Israeli officials.
“Release the hostages, this is what the UN must demand,” Crif vice-president Nathalie Cohen-Beizermann told the crowd. “Our cry is to demand freedom for our martyred brothers and sisters. This war could end tomorrow if Hamas releases the hostages,” she said. “To talk about famine in Gaza is to believe the terrorists who glorify death,” she said.
In retaliation for the Hamas attack, the Israeli army launched a campaign of intense aerial bombardments on the Gaza Strip, followed by a ground offensive, which left 33,175 people dead, most of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Defense. Hamas Health, and caused a humanitarian disaster.