All they have from their loved ones is frightening news from October 7th. Nothing since then. Families of Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza told Paris on Wednesday of the torture of waiting and uncertainty.
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“Our lives stopped on October 7,” summarizes Moran Betzer Tayar, a 54-year-old woman whose nephew and his wife were taken hostage at Kibbutz Nirim near the Gaza Strip.
Moran and three young women, relatives of hostages, began a European tour in Paris that will take them to Madrid, Vienna and Copenhagen to raise global awareness of the fate of about 220 people kidnapped by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas became his bloody attack on Israel.
AFP
During the press conference organized by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), 25-year-old Shani held up a photo of her sister Eden Yeruchalmi with the word “kidnapped” crossed out. Eden served at the bar at the rave party in southern Israel where 270 young people were killed by Hamas attackers from Gaza.
Shani clings to the gaze of her younger sister May, who also came to Paris to testify, and tries to control her voice to recount the horrified calls from Eden as he tried to escape the attackers.
She hid in a car next to the bodies of her friends for an hour, then in a bush. “Eden is very small, she went into the fetal position, but the bush was even smaller than her and the terrorists saw her.”
“Her last sentence was: They got me,” Shani says, before triggering her phone to hear her sister’s screams, which she was recording.
Ofir speaks next to him. His cousin Itay, a German-Israeli, was taken hostage at Kibbutz Beeri, where Hamas commandos massacred at least 100 people, according to Israeli authorities.
The young woman describes the messages that flowed into the family’s WhatsApp group this Saturday, October 7th, the cries for help, the advance of the attackers, which was documented minute by minute. Itay’s parents are killed. Neighbors, friends.
“I can’t describe to you what it feels like to know that we are gradually losing them,” says Ofir, who considers Kibbutz Beeri his family. “They were peace activists, people who believed in peaceful coexistence,” she emphasizes.
No news
Since October 7, these families have received no sign of life or news of their loved ones. They simply know that they are among the hostages kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza. The Israeli army confirmed this to them.
“We can’t watch hostage videos (broadcast by Hamas, editor’s note), that’s impossible, we ask our friends to do it for us.” But they haven’t seen our loved ones,” explains Shani and demands like the other families, access to the hostages for the International Red Cross.
What is their health, have they been injured, where are they? Families are struggling without answers.
“We are sick with fear, sick with fear,” repeats Moran Betzer Tayar and calls on Hamas to “show humanity.”
When the questions become more political – do they fear that a land invasion of Gaza would be harmful to their relatives, do they want negotiations, do they demand a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza… – the relatives of the hostages evade.
“We are not here to tell Israel what to do, we do not represent our country, but our family,” says Ofir.
“We don’t have a problem with citizens, we have a problem with terrorists,” repeats Moran. “The only thing that matters to us is that they come home.”
According to Israeli authorities, attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Israel on October 7 killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
According to Hamas, more than 6,500 people have died in Israel’s repression in Gaza, including 2,704 children.