French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday paid tributes to the victims of the Hamas 7 October attack on Israel, on the first anniversary of an event that shook the Middle East. A ceremony will be held on Monday evening, hosted by the Crif Jewish organisation in the presence of several ministers including Prime Minister Michel Barnier
"The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago," President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media on Monday in English, French and Hebrew.
"The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity. We do not forget the victims, the hostages, or the families with broken hearts from absence or waiting. I send them our fraternal thoughts".
Macron hosted the families of hostages and victims of the Hamas attack in Israel on Monday at the Elysée palace.
More than 40 French nationals were among the 1205 victims.
Some 4,000 people have been invited to the Paris Dôme for a ceremony on Monday evening "in tribute to the victims" and "in support of the hostages still held captive", where videos and photos of hostages will be broadcast.
French Prime minister Michel Barnier and several members of the government will attending the event, organised by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif).
Visit to Israel
The commemorations in France, Israel and around the world come with Israel still fighting in Gaza and engaged in a new war to the north in Lebanon against Hamas ally Hezbollah.
It is also preparing its retaliation against Iran over its missile attack last week, raising fears of all-out regional war.
France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot attended a ceremony for victims of the Hamas attack in Israel on Monday, assuring France's "unwavering" support.
"Today, France mourns alongside Israel, our compatriots. France will never stop demanding the unconditional release of the hostages," he told those gathered in Reim, in southern Israel.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants 7 October 7, 117 have been freed, most of them women, children and foreign workers.
Israel believes 63 people, including two children, are still alive, while 34 are confirmed dead but remain in Gaza.
"To our some 180,000 compatriots in Israel, I say it forcefully, France loves you, the Republic will always be at your side as it was in the first hours of this terrible ordeal," he added.
Barrot met his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz, and will head to Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority later this Monday.
His comments came on the heels of his regional tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan over the weekend.
This visit however takes place in a particularly tense context, after Macron called for a halt to deliveries to Israel of weapons used in Gaza on Saturday, provoking the anger of the Israeli Prime Minister, who denounced the move as "shameful".
"I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop supplying weapons to lead the fighting in Gaza," Macron said on France Inter.
France's Macron urges halt to arms exports destined for Israel's use in Gaza
Meanwhile, spokespeople from Jewish and Muslim communities in France called for their followers to show compassion.
For Francis Barokel, president of the Jewish consistory of Bordeaux, "this is not an event that will only be remembered for a few days or a few years, it is an event that we will still think of in 100 years, in 200 years, in 300 years," he told France Bleu radio.
Barokel added that he thought most Jews were unhappy about what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in Lebanon.
"Let's not believe that we don't care about the people in Gaza and Beirut. When we think about it, they have the same suffering, they have the same fears, they have the same anxieties and we say to ourselves that it could be so much better otherwise, so much better."
Some members of the French Muslim community also reacted in solidarity, expressing compassion for their Jewish counterparts, like the Imam of Bordeaux, Tareq Oubrou.
He compared 7 October to 11 September and the attacks in the United States.
'Emotion must not obscure reason'
"It is an event that will mark History. We see it today through the consequences of this terrorist act committed by Hamas," he told France Bleu.
He condemned the "terrorist act" perpetrated by an organisation that "claims to be Islamic" and deplored attacks on civilians.
"Neither divine law nor human law permits such crimes," he added, urging people "not to import the conflict here to France".
"Our two respective communities, Jewish and Muslim, must transcend this divide and build peace already here in France. We are in a moment of great emotion, but emotion must not obscure reason", he warned.
"We are for peace and unfortunately there are fanatics," Michel Tordjman, father of a hostage killed on 7 October, at the age of 26, told French radio France Bleu on Monday, from Israel, where the former Bordeaux-based doctor settled after retiring.
Avidan Tordjman was participating in the open-air techno music festival targeted by Hamas, as a volunteer.
"I am for cohabitation, I am a trainer of doctors, we have Arab doctors in our medicine department. We are not trying to kill our neighbours. We are trying to raise our children and our grandchildren."
