War between Israel and Hamas: two French children killed in the Gaza Strip

Two French children were killed in the Gaza Strip and their mother and third child were likely injured, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

“France has learned with sadness of the death of two children of French nationality found in the north of the Gaza Strip along with their French mother, who was herself wounded, and her third child,” Quai d’Orsay said in a press release. , which does not specify the circumstances of the death.

The French Consulate General in Jerusalem “has, however, been unable to establish direct contact on the ground with this citizen,” which does not allow “the situation of this family to be verified at this stage,” continued French authorities, who say they are continuing their efforts “to reach this citizen and provide assistance.” help and support for her, as well as for her family.”

Their mother is the subject of an international arrest warrant for activities related to terrorist enterprises.

Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported on Oct. 25 that France was trying to “confirm the situation” of a French family after a mother posted on social media that her two children had been killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip. The woman also indicated that she and one of her other children suffered “serious injuries.”

According to AFP, which cites a French source close to the case, the 43-year-old woman “has been the subject of an international arrest warrant since July 2016 for criminal association with the intent to prepare terrorist acts and finance a terrorist organization.” company”.

Born in Talence (Gironde), she is, according to this source, the president of an association that in 2013 raised funds aimed at transporting medical equipment and medicines to Syria, funds that were in fact “transported in the summer of 2013.” , in the Idlib region, in the interests of jihadists, in order to acquire weapons and ammunition.

170 French in Gaza

In February 2019, the mother was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison in Paris for distributing money collected by her association to members of another Hamas and Islamic Jihad movement in the Gaza Strip in 2012 and 2013, which is close to Hamas.

There are 170 French citizens in the Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday. France “once again urges foreign citizens and in particular our compatriots to leave the Gaza Strip,” Quai said in a press release.

The Israeli army has been steadily bombing the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the bloody Oct. 7 attack on its territory by Islamist Hamas militants, which killed more than 1,400 people, with most civilians stabbed to death, burned alive or mutilated. . . The Hamas Health Ministry announced that the Israeli bombings killed more than 8,500 people, mostly civilians.