2023-11-28 20:27:54
The three freed French minor hostages are doing well, according to the head of French diplomacy
The three French minors, Hamas hostages who were released Monday evening, are doing well, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna rejoiced on Tuesday on RTL radio. Erez and Sahar Kalderon, 12 and 16, and Eitan Yahalomi, 12, arrived in Israel Monday evening as part of the truce agreement with the Palestinian Islamist movement. They had been captured during the attacks of October 7.
“There is classic medical monitoring, as always in these cases, but they do not seem to have been tested beyond what this terrible detention – 50 days – may have represented in terms of psychological shock and difficulties in daily life.” The news “is good first of all because obviously this release is a real relief and we share it with the mother of Sahar and Erez, and the grandmother of Ethan,” added the minister who must speak with the families during the day.
“Difficult” negotiations
Catherine Colonna also reported “difficult” negotiations between Qatar, which acts as an intermediary, Hamas and Israel. “Until the last moment, we do not know,” she explained, stressing that it is Hamas, “a terrorist organization responsible for atrocious, abominable, barbaric attacks,” which is handing over the lists to Israel.
“Sometimes there are discussions about names, the number of people, the quality of the person, whether a person could not be found or gathered in time,” she also said, explaining that some hostages were in the hands of Hamas, others in the hands of Islamic Jihad, still others “in the hands of individuals”.
“At the end of the day (yesterday), we felt a big sigh of relief, I won’t hide it from you,” she finally confided. While two other lists of hostages to be released are being prepared thanks to the two-day extension of the truce granted by Israel, Catherine Colonna has recently underlined that France wanted a “lasting truce” to free “all the hostages.” Some 240 people were kidnapped on October 7.
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