People take part in a demonstration in Jerusalem
The Israeli army said Friday it had recovered the bodies of three hostages, including a French-Mexican, killed during the October 7 attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel and then taken to the Gaza Strip.
The bodies of French-Mexican national Orión Hernández-Radoux and those of Hanan Yablonka and Michel Nisenbaum were found last night during a joint operation by the Israeli army and intelligence services in Jabalia, in the north of the Strip. Gaza, where intense fighting has taken place in recent days.
Orión Hernández-Radoux, 30, and Hanan Yablonka, 42, were both killed in the Hamas attack on the Nova open-air music festival, the military said.
Orión Hernández-Radoux’s girlfriend, Shani Louk, was also killed and her body found two weeks later.
Michel Nisenbaum, 65, was killed while caring for his granddaughter.
The bodies of the three hostages were identified by doctors from the Israeli National Forensic Institute and Israeli police, the army said.
The Hamas attack on October 7 left 1,200 dead while 250 people were taken hostage. Half of them were freed in a truce deal in November, but Hamas still holds around 130 hostages in the Gaza Strip, most of whom are presumed dead.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Friday that Israel was determined to return the last hostages still held in Gaza.
“We will not stop fighting for their freedom,” he said in a televised address.
On the X platform, French President Emmanuel Macron said he learned with “tremendous sadness” of the death of Orión Hernández-Radoux.
“France remains more than ever committed to the release of all the hostages,” he adds.
“We are all upset by this announcement,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal reacted to journalists during a trip to Valence (Drôme).
“It is a tragedy which reminds us that we still have two French hostages who are being held in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie; French version by Pauline Foret and Blandine Hénault, editing by Kate Entringer)
