French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on Wednesday to the 42 French and Franco-Israeli victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel during a sombre ceremony in the heart of Paris.
Four months to the day after militants from Hamas-ruled Gaza killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel, the Paris ceremony opened with 42 French republican guards walking through the centuries-old Invalides building carrying large portraits of the French and Franco-Israeli victims.
To the sound of drums and violins, guards stood at the centre of the wide courtyard as families of the victims, ministers and officials looked on in silence, some also carrying pictures of loved ones they lost in the attack.
“They were not all born in France, they did not die in France, but they were part of France,” Macron said.
“It was 6 a.m., and Hamas launched a massive and heinous attack by surprise, the largest antisemitic massacre of our century,” he said, vowing to fight antisemitism in all its forms, in France and abroad.
Antisemitic violence has increased in many countries, including in France, in the wake of the attack and Israel’s devastating invasion of Gaza in response.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday at least 27,708 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in Israel’s military campaign, with thousands more feared buried under rubble.
Some, including on the far-left, have criticised the fact that the Paris ceremony did not include a tribute to French citizens who have died in Israel’s military campaign.
An Elysee official said there would be another tribute but that they had not wanted to “mix two types of victims”.
“It is obvious that we owe the same emotion and dignity to the French victims of the bombing of Gaza,” the official said.
Reporting by Ingrid Melander and John Irish; editing by Mark Heinrich
