France paid tribute this Sunday to the victims of the 2012 jihadist attacks on Toulouse (south) in the presence of the French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
© Excelsior
France honors victims of 2012 jihadist attacks
Ten years ago, Mohamed Redthen 23 years old, undertook a series of attacks what they leave seven victims and a deep imprint on the population.
The first victim was a 30-year-old soldier, who was shot in the head on March 11, 2012 in Toulouse. Four days later, three more soldiers were attacked while withdrawing money outside a barracks in Montauban, further north. One of them became quadriplegic.
And on March 19, two children, ages 3 and 7, were shot from a motorcycle at close range in the courtyard of the Ozar Hatorah Hebrew school in Toulouse. Seconds earlier, Merah also fired at a father and his son.
This Sunday morning, the former students of the school, renamed Ohr Torah, filled the courtyard to attend a ceremony presided over by the rabbi and director of the establishment, Yaacov Monsonego, whose daughter Myriam died in the attack.
The French head of state and his Israeli counterpart placed a wreath in the courtyard of the Ohr Torah school, at the foot of the “Tree of Life”, a monument to the victims.
The pain is intense, what happened was traumatic and the absence will never be filled. But the will to live and the solidarity within the school will be stronger,” said Ava Ouaknine, who is 19 and was a friend of Myriam.
In the followingnoon, a grand ceremony to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the attacks brought together Macron and Herzog, as well as former French presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, along with 2,000 guests in a concert hall.
The joint presence [de Macron y Herzog] aims to mark the friendship that unites France and Israel, as well as the will of the two heads of state to continue their fight once morest terrorism and anti-Semitism,” the French presidency said.
© Provided by Excelsior
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