Five hostages of Hamas are free, offering some hope to the families of more than 200 others snatched in southern Israel during the militants' deadly rampage on Oct. 7.
The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees told a U.N. emergency meeting Monday "an immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions," accusing Israel of "collective punishment" of Palestinians and the forced displacement of civilians.
FILE - Posters showing the kidnapped, Israeli Segev Kalfon and Israeli Shlomo Mansour are seen as people gather outside the Qatari Embassy in London on Oct. 29, 2023, to demand the release of the estimated 230 hostages held in Gaza by Hamas after theHere are stories of some of the more than 200 still held in captivity.
Ofri Bibas said she communicated with her brother in a flurry of texts as the Hamas gunmen roamed around outside his home. She said her brother and his wife did their best to keep their sons quiet. Ofri Bibas said every time she hears children playing, she thinks of her little nephew, Kfir, hungry and afraid.— Menelaos Hadjicostis
The scene is a glimpse of the difficult limbo in which the Neutras find themselves as they and the families of more than 200 other Israeli hostages — and dozens more people who remain missing — await word on their loved ones’ fates, with hope.Omer Neutra was born in Manhattan a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the son of Israeli-born parents. Also a dual citizen, he attended a conservative Jewish school and "knew all of the statistics of the New York Knicks," Ronen said.
There were strong signs that at least some had been taken hostage. Her parents’ house at Kibbutz Be’eri was burned but the shelter was intact and there were no bodies found in it. Phone locations were tracked to Gaza. Haran’s brother-in-law had been seen being put in a Hamas car. And after a friend called the father’s phone more than 100 times, someone finally answered in Arabic and then referred in Hebrew to a hostage situation.
Asked if she has a message on behalf of her family, Haran preferred to speak about all the hostages and victims. "How can you tell a 2-year-old boy he won’t see his mother anymore?" said Or’s older brother, Michael Levy. The family is stuck between heartbreak and hope, and they pray that Or makes it home alive."Or is always smiling, always happy, not just in the pictures," said Michael Levy, 40, who thinks of his brother as a child genius who would break things so he could fix them.
Several days later, the Israeli army informed the family that Eynav’s body was found inside the shelter, and that Or had been kidnapped and taken hostage. The family has no other details. "This is a guy who has so much to give,’’ said his father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen. "He’s already proven it. Ironically not just to Israelis and his family, his children, but to all of our neighbors."
"It is a crime that Hamas has made it so that Palestinian people will never be able, I fear, to benefit themselves from my son and people like him because their brains have been poisoned," he added.
"She’s afraid and she has to hide from bush to bush so the terrorists will not find her. Just imagine where she was, what she felt," Gonen said. "And they knew I was lying because I didn’t have anything, anything I could do to help her," Gonen said. More than a week later, Weinstein and Haggai are still missing. Their family used the video to pinpoint the couple’s last known location and shared it with the Israeli army, but a search came up empty. Their fate remains a mystery to their four grown children.
"She loved reading," Adva Adar recalled. "So we were like, "We’re going to get you a Kindle." What did her grandmother say? "‘No, I like the smell of the paper in books.’" What’s frightening now is that her grandmother doesn’t have her medication for blood pressure and chronic pain. Eshel was proud to be a third generation of her family to join the Israeli military. Her father, uncle and grandfather also served.Her father said she has planned to travel and enroll in a university after completing her two years of service. But he can’t think about her future while she’s missing. Eyal Eshel says he isn’t sleeping, eating or working while he waits.
Maya was not pictured, but the army has told the family both were hostages in Gaza. Officials gave no further information. "He’s a survivor," Goldberg said of her son, whose grin beams out from behind a sparse, youthful beard in family photos. "He’s not like this big, bulky guy. But I think that survival has a lot to do with where you are mentally."
Family and friends have organized the "Bring Hersh Home" campaign on social media, hoping he will still be able to take a planned backpack trip through southern Asia."It will require like the biggest heroism and strength and courage, but I want someone to help out and I want someone to help all of those hostages."Ada Sagi was getting ready to travel to London to celebrate her 75th birthday with family when Hamas militants attacked her kibbutz and took her hostage.
A mother of three, Ada decided to learn Arabic so she could make friends with her neighbors and build a better future for her children. She later taught the language to other Israelis as a way to improve communication with the Palestinians who live near Kibbutz Nir Oz, on the southeastern border of the Gaza Strip.While he hopes his mother’s language skills will help her negotiate with the hostage-takers, he is calling on the international community for assistance.
Her grandmother hasn’t been heard from since, Anat Moshe said. She’d had heart surgery last year, and is without her medication. Creating art to wear has been Yanai’s passion, but not the only one, her brother-in-law Dan Mor said. Yanai, a 40-year-old Israeli who disappeared after a desert rave, also fiercely protected people and animals.
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