While the agreement on a second truce in Gaza provides for the release of 33 hostages, two French people are still presumed to be in the hands of Hamas: Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi.
Does the truce, the agreement for which was approved on Wednesday by Hamas and Israel, provide for their release? “This is what we have tirelessly asked for 15 months,” replied the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, interviewed this morning on RTL. “For too many months, we have had no news. (…) We very much hope that they can return to us alive and in good health. We have no certainty,” he laments.
Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi, still in the hands of Hamas
The government is “in close contact with their families”. “I am thinking this hour of their spouses, of their children, some of whom are struggling so much to rebuild their lives after having themselves been hostages in Gaza, sometimes overcome by the feeling of guilt of having been freed themselves, while their father is still held hostage,” continued Jean-Noël Barrot.
Three members of the Kalderon family were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, in the Nir Oz kibbutz, near the Gaza Strip: father Ofer and his two children, Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16. Her children were released at the end of November, after 52 days of captivity, as part of the ceasefire agreement. The 53-year-old father, Ofer, remained detained in the hands of Hamas. “The last message my ex-husband sent me was: we jump out the window, we go and hide in the bushes », His ex-wife, Hadas Jaoui-Kalderon, told Le Parisien.
The second hostage, Ohad Yahalomi, 49, was also kidnapped on October 7 in the same kibbutz of Nir Oz, with his 12-year-old son Eitan. The latter was released, like the Kalderon children, at the end of November. Father Ohad still remains detained in Gaza. On January 19, Hamas released videos in which he appeared. Since then, no information has been given on his fate.
