The Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France) confirmed Monday the death of Céline Ben David-Nagar, a young 32-year-old French woman who had been missing since October 7.
The young mother of a six-month-old baby was attending a music festival in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas terrorists. Her family hoped she would be taken hostage. Yaëlle Krief, her friend and spokesperson for the young woman’s support committee, announced her death to Actu Lyon on Monday evening. “It is with a heavy heart and immense sadness that we inform you that Céline has been found. May his memory be blessed,” she said.
Céline’s brother, Samuel, testified on BFMTV that he struggled to find her, calling hospitals in the area, to no avail. He said that Céline was in her 4×4, less than 1 kilometer from the party, when the sirens sounded. “She went back towards the house, that’s where she spoke with her husband (on the phone Editor’s note.), she said: there are soldiers coming to help us! But it wasn’t soldiers, it was Hamas fighters who shot at them.”
“Her husband found the car yesterday, completely machine-gunned,” the brother continued, “with the Hamas motorcycle behind, blood from the driver. But no news from Céline. From Israel, her husband launched, in tears, a message on BFMTV. “Céline, if you see these images, your daughter Hélie is in good health.” The latter had told the BBC “no longer eating or sleeping” since his disappearance. “You don’t sleep, you don’t eat and you’re in a kind of crazy uncertainty,” he told the British television channel. “I want to believe that she is alive there, in Gaza, and maybe she is taking care of the children who were kidnapped with her. I just hope that she knows that we are fighting for her and that she tells herself that she will come home,” he added.