Families wait with hope and fear, as Israel and Hamas move towards release of hostages
Israelis are not afraid of their future: The kidnapping of a southern kibbutz by a Hamas-armed group
They are among the more than 30 children abducted from their homes and taken to Gaza during the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7. Their faces have appeared on signs and fliers all over the world. They have galvanized a nation at war, and forced Israel’s leaders to negotiate with Hamas, an armed group they have vowed to destroy.
“If we’ve been on a roller coaster, now we’re going up,” said Gili Roman, whose sister Yarden Roman was taken hostage from Be’eri, a Gaza border kibbutz, during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7. “The fear is that the higher we go, the farther we’ll fall. There’s a lot of anxiety.”
Less than an hour later, Hamas announced in a statement on Telegram that it had agreed to a four-day cease-fire that would allow for 50 hostages to be exchanged for 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Yifat Zailer — whose cousin Shiri Bibas was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with Ms. Bibas’s husband, Yarden Bibas, and their two red-haired children, Ariel and Kfir — said her anxious wait for news has been tinged by the hope that she might soon see her loved ones and the fear something might go awry.
She said that she was trying to take care not to be happy quickly. “It could collapse tomorrow, for any reason. We might watch the days pass as the hostages return, and no one except Shiri and her children are there.
They were kidnapped by Hamas and had two cousins, one of which was a resident of the kibbutz. They were also taken hostage by their father.
But even if Ms. Bibas, Kfir and Ariel return home as part of the emerging hostage deal — far from guaranteed — Yarden, her husband, is likely to stay behind.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video on Nov. 9 featuring Yagil. In the video, he asked Israel to return him to him. Hostages often appear in such videos under duress and their statements are likely to have been coerced.
Hamas terrorist kidnaps and release of civilians in a tunnel under Gaza: The case of Karina Engelbert
The family of Ms.Phillips-Bahat has not heard whether her cousins would return in the exchange for hostages.
When armed Hamas terrorists invaded her home on Oct. 7, Karina Engelbert was still recovering from a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery that had gone terribly awry. She was weak and easily fatigued, and a build up of scar tissue on her chest limited her mobility.
The militants kidnapped Ms. Engelbert, 51, and her entire family, including her husband, Ronen Engel, 54, and their daughters, 18-year-old Mika and 11-year-old Yuval, snatching them from the safe room inside their home on the Nir Oz kibbutz and taking them to the Gaza Strip, where they have been held for over 40 days.
Ms. Engelbert told her brother in the morning that she was inside the house.
He had no idea if she was getting any healthcare, if anyone was taking care of her or if she was taking any medicine to keep the cancer from returning.
They include a pregnant Thai foreign worker who may have given birth to her child in captivity. A lot of kibbutz members are taking drugs to treat chronic conditions like high blood pressure and younger adults with both psychiatric conditions and medical conditions that can be fatal if left unaddressed.
And then there were those who sustained potentially life-threatening injuries in the raid itself, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, who was among just four hostages released by Hamas early in the conflict, described being marched into a network of damp subterranean tunnels under Gaza that she likened to “a spider web.”
Little is known about the children’s whereabouts or well-being, and Hamas, the dominant Palestinian force in Gaza, has denied the Red Cross access to them. It is presumed that some are being held beneath Gaza’s streets in the group’s warren of tunnels and underground chambers.
Towards a peace agreement between Israel and Israel after the September 11 kidnapping by a terrorist attack on a Palestinian civilian population
Yael Lichi said she was feeling like yesterday and the day before after her nephew was kidnapped while visiting his girlfriend.
“Each one of them is a person, not a number or a statistic,” said Eylon Keshet, a cousin of Kfir Bibas, the now 10-month-old. Each one is a part of our lives and capable of great things.
A young man is making a video for his abductors. A 9-year-old is at a friend’s house. The last memory of her parents was being murdered. And an infant, now all of 10 months, who has spent about a tenth of his life in captivity.
About 240 people were abducted by gunmen that day. Among them were individuals gravely injured in the attack or who suffered from chronic illnesses, infants and grandparents, peace activists and soldiers, citizens of Israel and foreign nationals.
The first group initially took the upper hand, persuading Mr. Netanyahu to delay a cabinet vote originally planned for Nov. 14, according to three of the officials. They hoped that more military pressure could be used by Israel to get more hostages freed.
Four senior security officials who are not authorized to discuss the situation said that a group led by David Barnea, the head of Mossad, argued that the deal was better than none and that the invasion could proceed after the brief cease-fire.
The cessation of hostilities came after around 1,200 people were killed and about 240 people were taken captive by Hamas.
A Call to Identify the Hamas Fighters: Israel Gaza Hostages – Delivering the Right Solution to Israel’s Misunderstanding
Everyone who comes out of this terror and this horror, we’re very welcoming. But in the same breath, it’s really hard because at the same time, maybe my sister won’t be among the 50 people. I’m trying not to think about it.
When Hamas fighters attacked the concert, Romi Gonen was able to call her mother. In a portion of their conversation, which was shared by the family with NPR, gunshots and shouts could be heard and they believed them to be from Hamas fighters.
“The last few minutes they are speaking of Romi, they are saying she is alive, they shouldn’t kill her, they should take her with them,” Gonen said. “Then one of them said, ‘I will take her.’ And then the call ended.”
Yarden Gonen and her family have traveled to Tel Aviv each day for the past six months to gather with the other families of hostages. Other Israelis are also keeping vigil.
Gonen believes that a sense of community is crucial to the well being of her family. She said these weeks of waiting without knowledge about her sister have been exhausting and frightening.
We have up and downs. We have so much support,” she says. Right now, I have a new family. All the [hostage] families are in the same boat I’m in, suffering from the same pain and uncertainty.”
A coalition of families whose relatives were taken hostage issued a statement on Wednesday, urging the Israeli government to move quickly to secure the release of additional hostages.
“We welcome every hostage who returns home, yet our demand remains unchanged, the immediate release of all 236 hostages,” the group said. Ensuring the safe release of every hostage is a national priority. There is no victory until every last hostage returns home.”
A total of 300 Palestinian prisoner names have been released by Israel and there is the potential for more exchanges in the future.
What do Palestinians and Palestinians tell us about Israel, Palestine and Hamas? She shares her fear with her partner, who is serving in Israel’s army
While Yarden Gonen worries about her sister, she is also frightened for her partner, who’s been called up to serve in Israel’s army as part of a mobilization of 300,000 reservists to support the war.
“This is the fear all the time, because you don’t know what they’re planning or what they are doing,” Gonen says.
Qatar announced a four-day “humanitarian pause” in fighting between Israel and Hamas as part of a deal it mediated, along with the U.S. and Egypt, for Hamas to release 50 women and children being held hostage in Gaza. Israel will release some Palestinian women and children according to a report.
“I just keep on praying and sending really good energies,” Gonen told NPR Wednesday, after details of the deal were made public. I will be excited for anyone I let go because they are my family too.
