From the Liveblog of
Sunday, October 15, 2023
In southern Israel, French FM speaks with families of those killed or taken by terrorists to Gaza
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
With French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna by his side in Ashkelon, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen says, “We need the time to win.”
“Our victory will ensure that the radical Islamist terrorism will not reach Paris, London, and New York,” he says in Hebrew in front of the cameras. “This is a global war against criminal terrorism. As President Biden said, Hamas is worse than ISIS, and they will pay a price.”
The two senior diplomats meet with the Shem and Meir families, whose daughters were snatched by Hamas and taken to Gaza.
They also speak with Sabine Tasa, a French citizen whose husband and son were killed in the Hamas attacks.
“Coming here, of course, is a way of showing France’s solidarity with the Israeli people who suffered a monstrous terrorist attack,” Colonna says. “ It is also a way of saying that France shares the pain of the Israeli people.”
“It shares Israel’s grief because it too knows the price of Islamist terrorism and because here it lost 17 French people, 17 French people lost their lives in the attacks carried out by Hamas, a terrorist organization.”
She announces that France is delivering medical equipment for a mobile emergency post.
Colonna arrived in Israel last night for a meeting with the families of missing French citizens.
“It is a priority for us to be at their side, to tell them, to show them and to assure them that France is doing everything, France is doing everything to give them back their loved ones,” she says alongside Cohen.
She is also meeting with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv, and religious leaders and representatives from humanitarian organizations in Jerusalem.
