Photographs of the victims are displayed, each on a stake, under the eucalyptus trees. The atmosphere is heavy, charged with the memory of the people gunned down by members of Hamas, in the early morning of October 7, 2023, during the Tribe of Nova music festival, in Réim. Since 6:30 in the morning, when the massacre began a year ago, thousands of relatives and neighbors came to pay their respects before the great monument built over months to maintain the memory of these tragic hours. In these places he perished about 360 of the approximately 1,200 victims of Hamas attacks.
Jean-Noël Barrot, French Foreign Minister, has difficulty hiding his emotion when speaking to the parents of the murdered Franco-Israeli youth. “With a broken heart”Laurent Bitton, with the faces of his daughter Maya and her partner printed on his T-shirt, greets your presence. “the only one of a foreign leader on the scene.” “ “France mourns, together with Israel, our compatriots.”the minister observed shortly afterwards in a speech translated into Hebrew. After listing the first names of some victims, he places a wreath and 48 white roses, in memory of the Franco-Israelis who died during the day of October 7. “Darkness will never prevail over light”he says, when a loud detonation echoes nearby.
The sound of Israeli gunshots
The war is not far away, which continues in the Gaza Strip, a few kilometers away. In the morning, Hamas launched rockets at Tel Aviv, which were intercepted without causing any casualties. A heavily armed Israeli helicopter flies over the monument. The mourning of the families gathered at the site is marked by the sound of Israeli gunfire in the Palestinian enclave.
After this time of remembrance in the shadow of the Gaza war, the Minister traveled to Jerusalem to try to convey France’s message, that is, to warn the Netanyahu Government against the risks of an escalation in Lebanon and against Iran. An arduous task, while the Israeli authorities have no intention of ending the attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.
During his conversations with Israel Katz, head of Foreign Affairs, and then Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s close friend, in charge of strategic affairs, the Minister claims to have conveyed to him “a message of truth, that friends and partners owe each other” : “Force alone cannot guarantee Israel’s security. (…) There are political solutions, but there is little time left. » “To finally return the hostages to their loved ones, to finally allow the displaced people from the North to return to their homes, after a year of war, the time for diplomacy has come. “We are on the brink of the abyss.”, he added. In one year, Israeli attacks have caused almost 42,000 victims in Gaza and tens of thousands of injuries.
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