The Israeli army announced on Friday May 24 that it had recovered the bodies of three hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
“The bodies of the hostages (Chanan) Yablonka (Israeli, Editor’s note), Michel Nisenbaum (Israeli-Brazilian, Editor’s note), and Orion Hernandez-Radoux, Franco-Mexican, Editor’s note) were recovered during the night during a joint operation” of the Israeli army and intelligence services in Jabalia, in the north of the territory at war, indicates the army in a press release.
Emmanuel Macron expressed his “immense sadness” on Friday. “I learned with immense sadness of the death of our compatriot Orión Hernández-Radoux, hostage of Hamas since October 7. I am thinking of his family and his loved ones. We are at their side. France remains more than ever committed to the release of all the hostages”, wrote the President of the Republic on X.
Traveling to Valencia, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal “expressed his thoughts and solidarity to his family, his friends and his loved ones”. “It is a tragedy which firstly reminds us of the scale of the massacre and the terrorist attack committed by Hamas. It is a drama which reminds us that we still have two French hostages who are being held in the gang of Gaza,” he added, affirming that “our absolute priority is obviously to achieve their release so that they can find their loved ones in safety.”
The bodies of two other hostages
In addition to that of Orión Hernández-Radoux, the bodies of Israeli Chanan Yablonka and Israeli-Brazilian Michel Nisenbaum were found. These three men were among 124 people still held in Gaza, out of the 252 kidnapped on October 7. The number of hostages still held now stands at 121, of whom 37 are dead, according to the Israeli army.
On October 7, Orión Hernández-Radoux attended the Tribe of Nova music festival in southern Israel when Hamas fighters attacked. In an interview with AFP in January, his French mother Marie-Pascale Radoux, a painter based in Labastide-Saint-George, near Toulouse, asked “Hamas to take care of (her) son, because he had physical frailties.