Three days after the Hamas attack in Israel on Saturday, the concern has not subsided and the consequences for certain French people there are dramatic. Four of them were killed, the Quai d’Orsay said in a statement published Monday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also considered the kidnapping of several other French people “very probable”, while 13 of them have not given any news. Among them, Eitan, a 12-year-old teenager, was kidnapped on a motorbike by several armed men, according to his relatives. What happened ? How is the French ministry organized? 20 minutes takes stock of the situation.
What happened ?
Eitan, 12 years old, lived with his family in the Nir Oz kibbutz, a few hundred meters from the Gaza Strip, as mentioned The Parisian. During the Hamas attack, the teenager hid in a shelter with his parents and two sisters. But the family is ultimately taken hostage, while the father is injured by Kalashnikov fire while trying to intervene.
As reported BFM TV via the testimony of the family’s aunt on the I24 News channel, Eitan and his relatives were taken on motorcycles until two tanks arrived. The mother and two daughters managed to escape, while the teenager was kidnapped. Still according to the aunt, the father of the family is also missing, as mentioned by The Parisian. “We haven’t had any news since. We don’t know what his destination was,” laments the aunt on I24 News. She told Le Parisien that Eitan, his mother Batsheva and one of the two sisters have French nationality.
How is the Quai d’Orsay organized?
“The information available to us allows us to consider the kidnapping of some of them, including a minor child of twelve years old, as very likely,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs communicated on Monday.
Initially, the Quai d’Orsay mentioned the death of two French nationals, before raising the toll this Tuesday morning. “France deplores the tragic death of two other French nationals, which brings the toll of French victims of terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas to four.” “We are in permanent contact with the families of each of the victims, to support them in the terrible ordeal they are going through,” assured the ministry.