On Thursday 6 August, five people were taken hostage by an armed man at the BRED branch in the center of Le Havre.
The offender voiced his demands through journalists: to release all Palestinian minors from Israeli prisons, as well as to open free access to all Palestinian Arabs under 40 years of age to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Israeli TV channel i24 in French reported that the criminal had released two hostages even before the start of the police operation.
Law enforcement agencies have identified the offender. Reportedly, he is 34 years old, suffers from mental problems, was convicted of illegal possession of weapons and illegal imprisonment of another person.
At 22:04 Israel time, BFMTV broadcast that the perpetrator had released another hostage. Thus, there are two more people in the room with him.
11:15 pm it was reported that another hostage had left the bank building.
The released hostages say that the perpetrator is armed.
