French MP says around 8 French citizens dead, missing or abducted in Hamas attack

French-Israeli Meyer Habib says Paris must hold terror group responsible for hostages’ safety, names Avidan T., 26, as among those kidnapped from Re’im rave

At least eight French nationals were missing, dead, or taken hostage, after Hamas’s weekend assault on Israel, a lawmaker said Monday.

However, the country’s foreign ministry confirmed the deaths of only two citizens in a statement.

“France regrets the tragic death of a second French national, who fell victim to Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel,” the ministry said.

“We are continuing our efforts to clarify the situations of those of our nationals who remain unaccounted for,” it added.

Earlier, conservative MP Meyer Habib, who represents French people living abroad in a swathe of Mediterranean countries including Israel, wrote that “at least eight French people are believed to be missing, dead, or taken hostage by Hamas” in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

Paris “should hold Hamas directly responsible for [hostages’] safety and use every means to secure their release,” Habib, a dual French-Israeli citizen, added.

French MP for ‘Les Republicains’ Meyer Habib speaks during a debate to support the fight for Freedom of the Iranian at the National Assembly in Paris, on November 28, 2022. (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP / File)

Habib said that he had spoken to the father of 26-year-old Avidan T. from Bordeaux, who lives in Israel.

The father “confirmed to me that, as we feared, this young Frenchman… has indeed been taken hostage,” he wrote.

Habib had posted Sunday that Avidan was one of the revelers at a desert rave in southern Israel hit in a Hamas attack that killed as many as 260 people.

Participants have described a nightmarish massacre, with terrorists — who had apparently known in advance of the event and directed significant forces there — surrounding the participants and cutting down dozens of them with rifle fire, then moving through the area and hunting people in hiding to execute or capture them.

The foreign ministry said Monday that almost 62,000 French nationals were registered with the consulate-general in Tel Aviv, with a further 25,000 in Jerusalem.

Many French travelers were also present in Israel at the time of the attacks, it added.

Cars and partygoers fleeing the site of the Kibbutz Re’im nature party on October 7, 2023. (courtesy, Shye Weinstein)

Nationals should “follow the recommendations to remain extremely vigilant issued by our teams at the French embassy in Tel Aviv, the consulate-general in Jerusalem, and the Israeli authorities,” the ministry urged.

Hundreds of Palestinian terrorists from the Iran-backed Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, infiltrated Israel at dawn on Saturday under the cover of a massive rocket barrage. Gunmen roamed through communities and areas in southern Israel, killing at least 900 people and kidnapping over 100 others who were taken to Gaza as captives. Over 2,500 people in Israel were injured.

Israel has responded with airstrikes across Gaza targeting terrorist infrastructure.

The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip said 493 Palestinians have been killed and 2,300 have been wounded in the enclave since Saturday. The Israel Defense Forces has said it has killed hundreds more Palestinian terrorists in Israeli territory.