The ceremony was placed under the sign of the “fight against anti-Semitism”.
A national tribute was held this Wednesday at noon in the Cour des Invalides (Paris, 7th arrondissement) in memory of the 42 French victims of the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7.
Fifty-five victims' families were at the Invalides, as were many French political leaders, including LFI parliamentarians whose presence caused controversy.
The portraits of the 42 victims - each carried by a member of the Republican Guard - were also lined up in the courtyard of the Invalides.
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron then spoke.
Here's what you need to remember.
“42 lives cut short”
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron began his speech by recalling the number of “lives lost”: “42”.
“Four months to the day later, we are 68 million French people bereaved by the terrorist attacks of October 7.”
The head of state then cited the names of the three French people still held hostage in Gaza: “Ohad, Orion and Ofer”.
He reiterated that France was fighting “every day” for their “liberation”.
“Their empty chairs are there,” he added while three chairs were symbolically left empty for them.
For the Head of State, the voices of the victims “still resonate in Hebrew as in French”.
“On our soil, their faces are there, recalling the evidence of their lives, the indelible trace that they leave in ours,” he added.
October 7, the “largest anti-Semitic massacre of our century”
“On October 7 at dawn, the unspeakable resurfaced from the depths of History,” launched Emmanuel Macron.
“It was 6 a.m. and Hamas launched a massive and heinous attack by surprise, the largest anti-Semitic massacre of our century.
» He then returned to the events of the October 7 attacks.
“Tears in the face of barbarity, which snatches a child from the hollow of his father’s arms.
» “Silence in the face of the unspeakable, astonishment in the face of savagery, tears in the face of barbarism.
Barbarism, that which burns and breaks, that abuses and kills, that which tears apart,” insisted Emmanuel Macron.
The President of the Republic then echoed previous attacks targeting France.
“Our hearts sink to the echoes of the Bataclan, Nice and Strasbourg,” he recalled.
“Our country, this October 7, was touched in its flesh.
The French dead were not all born on French soil, they did not fall under the French sky, but they were from France because they carried it within them.
»
“All lives are worth and are invaluable in the eyes of France”
Emmanuel Macron then returned to the current situation in the Middle East and its “heartbreak”.
“All lives are worth and are invaluable in the eyes of France,” insisted the head of state, undoubtedly in reference to the Palestinian civilian victims in Gaza.
“The lives we honor have fallen, victims of terrorism which struck us right in the heart,” insisted Emmanuel Macron.
“France will remain united for France and for others.”
The head of state also assured “that he would not give in to rampant, uninhibited anti-Semitism”.
“Nothing can excuse or justify this terrorism.
» “We are a people loving freedom and dignity.
A people who will never forget them,” concluded Emmanuel Macron regarding the victims.