In the courtyard of the Invalides, 42 portraits. On Wednesday February 7, in Paris, President Emmanuel Macron paid a national tribute to the French victims of the attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas in Israel.
This ceremony takes place in particular in the presence of elected officials from the radical left, whose arrival sparked controversy: for families of victims, the expected presence of several leaders of La France insoumise – who had refused to describe the attack as " terrorist” – remains incomprehensible, even unacceptable, from this point of view.
This tribute is unprecedented outside Israel. It comes four months to the day after the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement, which led to the death of more than 1,160 people killed by bullets, burned alive or mutilated, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count carried out in based on official Israeli data, and which triggered a still ongoing conflict in Gaza.
With 42 fellow citizens or Franco-Israelis killed, three still missing and presumed hostages, four hostages released and six injured, this is the heaviest death toll on the French side since the Nice attack on July 14, 2016 (86 dead and more than 400 wounded).
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France has the largest Jewish community in Europe, with around 500,000 people, and nearly 100,000 nationals living in Israel, often having dual nationality.
Each victim will be represented by a photograph. The tribute, which will begin at 11:45 a.m. (10:45 a.m. GMT), will open with the Kaddish prayer for the dead, followed by a speech from the head of state, the ringing of "To the Dead", a minute of silence and Marseillaise.
With AFP
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