Despite the negotiations, the truce was not extended. Six additional Israeli hostages were released overnight, before fighting resumed.
The army announced Thursday evening that six Israeli hostages had been released in Gaza and had “arrived in Israel”
Earlier in the day, the young Franco-Israeli Mia Shem, among the best known in France among the Hamas hostages in Gaza, was released with another Israeli after 54 days of captivity, to the relief of her family, President Macron mentioning “a great joy” for all French people.
“You are with me, everything is fine”, his mother Keren whispered to him while welcoming him to a military base, images released by the Israeli government. Mia Shem’s brother, Eli Moshe, was also present. All three hugged each other for a long time before slipping away to find each other in privacy.
“It’s the most beautiful day of my life”reacted his father David Shem to the Israeli television channel Channel 12. “The army called me, I almost had a heart attack”he testified. “I’m not going to leave her for a long time.”
A video showing Keren Shem shedding tears of joy on the phone was previously circulating on the networks. “She’s coming home.”she said between sobs but with a broad smile to someone on the phone.
Karen Shem gave a moving press conference on October 17 in Tel Aviv, after Hamas released a video showing her daughter lying down and receiving treatment on one arm. “I’m begging the world to bring my baby home”she declared in particular.
Mia Shem was kidnapped from the Tribe of Nova music festival, in the Negev desert bordering the Gaza Strip, where 364 people were killed on October 7 and many others kidnapped and taken by Hamas fighters to the Strip. Gaza.
According to the Forum of Families of Hostages or Missing, the 21-year-old young woman, who worked in a tattoo parlor, was there in the company of a friend, also Franco-Israeli, Elya Toledano, 27, whose fate is unknown.
Mia Shem was released with another hostage, out of a planned total of around ten, on the seventh day of the fragile truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
The release of Mia Shem is “a great joy that I share with his family and all French people”declared President Emmanuel Macron on the X platform.
“I also express my solidarity with all those who remain hostages of Hamas. France is acting with its partners to obtain their release as soon as possible”added the French president.
Many hostages still in the hands of Hamas
Of the eight Franco-Israeli “disappeared” in the October 7 attack, four were released: in addition to Mia, three minors, Erez and Sahar Kalderon, 12 and 16 years old, and Eitan Yahalomi, 12 years old, were released on Monday .
The Quai d’Orsay expressed its “huge relief”. “We are delighted that she was able to regain her freedom after the odious captivity she suffered for 54 days, marked in particular by her abject depiction in a video published by Hamas. She is now safe in Israel”according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“It’s a huge relief, we were very worried because we knew she was injured”reacted to AFP lawyer Sacha Ghozlan, who defends the families of French hostages and co-founded AV7, an association of lawyers for victims of October 7.
“But this joy is incomplete because there are still many hostages in the hands of Hamas in Gaza”, he recalled. He notably mentioned Ofer Kalderon, the father of the two Kalderon teenagers released Monday, still detained, and Elya Toledano, “of which we have no proof of life”.
“Waiting and doubt constitute additional torments which add to the ignominy of the crime”indicates AV7 in a press release, demanding that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
On October 7, around 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed in Israel, and some 240 others taken hostage and taken to the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.
In retaliation, Israel promised to“annihilate” Hamas, shelling the Palestinian territory and launching a ground offensive on October 27 which lasted until the start of the truce on November 24. According to the Hamas government, more than 15,000 people, including more than 6,100 children and young people under the age of 18, died in Israeli strikes.
ADVERTISEMENTA truce that began on Friday and was further extended on Wednesday evening at the last minute was accompanied by a daily exchange of hostages in Gaza for three times as many Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
