Nearly 300 people gathered in Paris on Sunday evening to demand the release of the hostages held in Gaza by Hamas since the attack in Israel on October 7th.
In parallel with the pro-Palestine demonstration held in Place de la République on Sunday afternoon, 300 people gathered near the Eiffel Tower for the hostages held by Hamas.
Following Tel Aviv and Rome, a long symbolic table and dozens of empty chairs were set up in the heart of Paris to “pay tribute to the victims of terrorism” and to “demand the release of all hostages of all nationalities,” explained Sarah Ouakil, Vice President of the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF).
“This table was made for Shabbat, the day when we gather as a family (…) in a place of conviviality and warmth. Shabbat is Friday night, but this symbol continues,” she added, while several hundred people participated in the demonstration at Place de Fontenoy, behind the Champ-de-Mars.
The empty chairs around the long table with the white tablecloth represent the “more than 200 people who have been torn away from their families, who are sometimes missing, from the six-month-old baby to the grandmother, to the entire family,” she explained.
Among the participants in the gathering, some were carrying signs with photos of the hostages.
