Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday January 15 on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages after 15 months of war. According to Qatar, which played a mediating role, the truce will come into force on Sunday.
A moment of hope. The ceasefire agreement negotiated between Israel and Hamas provides for the release of several hostages held in Gaza. During a first phase, 33 of them must be released in exchange for a thousand Palestinians detained by Israel, while 94 people would still be in the hands of Hamas.
Among the hostages still believed to be in Gaza are two French-Israelis, named Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi. This Thursday, January 16, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot declared on RTL that he “strongly hopes” that the two hostages “can return to us alive.”
“We have no certainty (that they are alive), we have no news,” he admitted, assuring that France has “tirelessly” requested their release “for 15 months”.
Carpenter and father
Ofer Kalderon is a carpenter and father who was 52 years old when he was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, while in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
That day, he was captured with his two children, Erez and Sahar, then aged 11 and 16 respectively. Since then, both have been released on November 27, 2023, during the temporary truce agreement.
The mother, Hadas Jaoui-Kalderon, managed to escape Hamas on October 7, by taking refuge in a shelter. Same goes for their older brother and sister. Their grandmother and one of their cousins, however, died in the attack.
His 2 children released in 2023
In his last message, the fifty-year-old indicated to his ex-wife that he was with their two youngest children, Erez and Sahar, as she told the Monde in December 2023.
“We jumped out of the window and hid in the bushes,” he said, before being captured by Hamas.
On a daily basis, Hadas Jaoui-Kalderon described her ex-husband as a “lively person”, who loves “nature” and “the sea”.
To Le Parisien, she said of him that he was passionate about mountain biking and that he was a “good father, loving and close to his children” to whom he transmitted “good values”. Since the release of his children, France has no proof of the life of the fifty-year-old.
-Captured with his son
Ohad Yahalomi, 50, was also captured in the kibbutz of Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Father of three children, Eitan, 13, Yaël, 10, and Liel, 1, he worked for the Security Service. nature and gardens and was a great fan of travel and nature, according to the 7-October collective.
The wife of the fifty-year-old, Bat-Sheva Yahalomi, told France Info in October 2024 about the day of her husband’s kidnapping, while she was taking refuge “in the security room”. “One of the terrorists pointed his revolver at me to make us leave. My husband was injured. It was the last moment I saw my husband,” she confided.
Bat-Sheva Yahalomi is captured by the terrorist group and taken away on a moped with her daughter Yaël and her baby Liel, while the father and son are kidnapped by other Hamas members.
The mother manages to escape
The mother and her two daughters then managed to escape and return to the kibbutz. Father and son will not be so lucky. Only Eitan will be released after 52 days in captivity, during the truce agreement.
Since then, the Yahalomi family has not heard from Ohad. A year after Eitan’s release, his grandmother Jocelyne Goldapper told BFMTV that the young teenager was still traumatized by his detention and the lack of news from his father. “He remembers all his suffering and he says to himself: ‘my father is still there’,” she said.
Staying without any proof of Ohad Yahalomi’s life is the most difficult for his loved ones. “Your brain cannot accept, we are in continuous emotional panic, we go from despair to hope all day long,” said Jocelyne Goldapper at the end of 2024.
“A lot of uncertainties”
After the announcement of this agreement, Ifat Kalderon, cousin of Ofer Kalderon, assured Agence France-presse (AFP) that she felt “mixed feelings, on the one hand joy, mixed with horrible stress before knowing that it’s really going to happen.”
“I believe Ofer is alive and I hope he comes back,” she said.
This Thursday, the cousin of Hadas Jaoui-Kalderon, ex-wife of Ofer Kalderon, estimated on BFMTV that the agreement represented “real progress”, but “with a lot of uncertainties”, notably on the identity of the released hostages . Knowing nothing constitutes, according to him, “psychological torture”.
Of 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 2023, 94 are still held hostage in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead according to the Israeli army.
