The tally of dead and missing French citizens continues, five days after the violent attack by Hamas against Israel. Addressing the Sénat on Wednesday, October 11, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne spoke of "10 dead and 18 unaccounted for," including "several children, probably abducted" by the militant organization. On Wednesday evening, the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, raised the death toll to 11.
More than 80,000 French citizens or French-Israeli dual nationals are registered with French consular services in Israel. "Unfortunately," said Colonna on Tuesday, "as the Israeli authorities proceed with checks, with identification, the death toll increases."
French authorities are releasing information about the victims and the circumstances of their deaths only sporadically, but a few names are now known – such as that of Avidan T, a 26-year-old French-Israeli man who had lived in Israel with his parents since childhood. Jewish authorities in Bordeaux, where the family was originally from, have confirmed the young man's death. He was one of between 2,000 and 3,500 people attending the Supernova electronic music festival, held near Kibbutz Re'im in the Negev desert, just 3 kilometers from the border with the Gaza Strip.
Targeted by dozens of Hamas militants, the festival was the scene of the biggest massacre of the offensive, with at least 260 victims shot dead on the spot as they tried to flee, according to a count by rescuers from the Jerusalem-based Zaka search and rescue organization. Meyer Habib, the Les Républicains MP for the eighth constituency of French residents overseas (which covers Israel) announced the young man's death on Tuesday, which was later confirmed by the French authorities.
At least two other French people were among the victims at the festival, including Naomi N, aged 23. According to evidence gathered by French radio network RTL, this young woman from the Paris suburbs had left for Israel to join her fiancé, according to one of her friends interviewed by the radio station. Separated from him as he was wounded in the panic to escape, she was killed trying to find him. French news agency Agence France-Presse also named a 26-year-old man, Dan B, originally from Marseille but living in Israel since childhood, whose body was identified on Tuesday evening among the victims, according to the president of Marseille's local Jewish authority, Michel Cohen-Tenoudji.
Two French-Israelis serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are also among the dead. Benyamin L, the grandson of a rabbi from the Jewish community of a suburb of Paris, was killed on the Gaza border, according to several sources, confirming information from French newspaper Le Parisien and Israeli media. On Wednesday, the southern French regional daily publication Midi Libre reported the death of Valentin G, a 23-year-old from Montpellier who had chosen to move to Israel and was doing his military service there. According to a press release from the Olami religious association – of which he was a member – he was killed on Saturday during fighting at Be'eri kibbutz, a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip.
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