Forty-two portraits held by Republican guards in the main courtyard of the Invalides, their families present and a speech by Emmanuel Macron.
France paid tribute this Wednesday to its fellow citizens who died in the attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas in Israel.
With 42 French or Franco-Israeli people killed, three still missing and presumed hostages, four hostages released and six injured, this is the heaviest death toll from a terrorist act on the French side since the Nice attack on July 14, 2016.
This tribute, unprecedented outside Israel, comes four months to the day after the assault by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
This unprecedented attack led to the death of more than 1,160 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, and triggered a still ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The tribute ceremony, unprecedented outside Israel, was held in the main courtyard of Les Invalides
AFP/Gonzalo Fuentes
Members of the government were present, such as Gabriel Attal, Gérald Darmanin and Sébastien Lecornu
Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes
The former tenants of Matignon, Élisabeth Borne and Édouard Philippe, also paid tribute to the victims
AFP/Gonzalo Fuentes
Political leaders from all sides made the trip, notably rebels - here Mathilde Panot and Manuel Bompard - whose presence caused controversy
Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes
On a pale blue background, the first names of the 42 victims are mentioned
AFP/Gonzalo Fuentes
“On our soil, their faces are there, recalling the evidence of their lives, the indelible trace that they leave in ours,” declared Emmanuel Macron about the victims of Hamas
AFP/Gonzalo Fuentes
The head of state assured that he would not give in anything “to bring back those who are still there”, in the presence of the victims’ families
AFP/Gonzalo Fuentes
He also declared “to give in nothing to rampant, uninhibited anti-Semitism”
AFP/Ludovic Marin
Carried by Republican guards, the portraits of the victims leave the main courtyard at the end of the ceremony
AFP/Gonzalo Fuentes