Yesterday marked one year since the first and only hostage deal was implemented. During those days, an entire nation held its breath watching hostages cross into Israeli territory and embrace their families. A year has passed while 101 hostages who were certain they would be next remain in captivity, with no subsequent deals materializing.
In a program released hostages and families of those still held captive made a special declaration at the Hostages Families Forum’s headquarters, demanding an immediate deal to return all hostages in a single exchange – the living for rehabilitation, and the deceased for proper burial in their homeland.
Released hostage Danielle Aloni said: “It took the Israeli government about two months to secure a deal for me and 80 other Israeli hostages. Why is it taking over a year to reach another deal to free them from this hell? How else can we convince those in charge of the urgency required? Though it may look different from the outside, we haven’t really left the tunnels. The feeling of suffocation, the terrible humidity, the stench – these sensations still envelop us. The hands that kidnapped us, the hands that touched us as we descended into the tunnel, the penetrating, threatening gazes, still paralyze us with fear. Tomorrow is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and we’ll mark it while women are still held in Gaza’s dark tunnels. Women who haven’t yet begun to live their lives, women who didn’t get the chance to live, and sadly among them, some women who never will. Every woman and man should wonder and worry about what these women endure there day and night. They suffer physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, their identity and dignity crushed anew each day.”
Released hostage Raz Ben Ami, wife of Ohad Ben Ami emphasized that: “If people could truly understand what it means to be held in subhuman conditions in tunnels, surrounded by terrorists for 54 days – there’s no way they would allow hostages to remain there for 415 days!
Like many others, my heart skipped a beat with yesterday’s Hamas spokesperson’s announcements. Each time it devastates me anew. I don’t pretend to be a politician, I’m simply a wife and mother who wants her husband and her daughters’ father back home. The hostages are in Hamas’ hands and we’ve seen that military pressure kills them rather than securing their release. There have been few successful rescue operations, so the only way to bring back the hostages is through an agreement. All parties say conditions are ripe for a deal. No more excuses. It’s time to bring back all the hostages as quickly as possible, because we don’t know who will survive another winter in the tunnels.”
Released hostage Gabriela Leimberg told that: “In captivity, I had imaginary conversations that strengthened me, dialogues with my loved ones, crafted scenarios to maintain optimism, and imagined the day after, thinking about returning. It’s hard for me to believe that any hope remains among the hostages and that they can still imagine their return. Captivity is hell, life could end at any moment, no one can prepare for such conditions, it’s prolonged suffering and hope is the only light. I hope it still exists within them, and that depends on us.
We left Luis and Fernando behind knowing they would return just days after us. They remained in enemy hands, with broken hearts, but we – my sister Clara, the family and I – thought it would take only a few days until we’d see them home and reunited. It took over seventy days until they were rescued in an operation.
A year ago, I returned home with 104 other hostages in a deal. 105 living hostages, more than any rescue operation could bring back. One exchange must bring them all back, 101 hostages. It’s possible.”
Yifat Zailer, cousin of Shiri Bibas said: “A year ago, we sat evening after evening watching the news. We sat waiting for the phone call telling us they would return tomorrow. We saw the embraces of those returning, the heart-wrenching reunions, the families reuniting anew, and our hearts swelled with joy and pinched with envy – we too were waiting to reunite with our loved ones. Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel were supposed to return in that deal, in its next phase.
What if we had waited just one more day? Just one more phase. Shiri and the children would already be home, and maybe we would have answers to the questions and anxieties that have accompanied us for more than a year. We hear many people telling us – they’re surely dead by now. Is such a statement supposed to be comforting? As if it only magnifies the failure, the foot-dragging, the lack of initiative, and worst of all, the sabotage of deals that could have brought them back.
For us, they are alive, barely surviving, abandoned to their death anew each day. Any day they could die, all of them. All the hostages. And perhaps yesterday was already too late for some of them?”
Michel Illouz, father of the late Guy Illouz in his address said that: “For 415 days I’ve been pierced and violated like my firstborn son Guy who was shot twice before being taken captive, 415 days without a grave where I can unload my grief and talk to my beloved son. Just hearing Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida’s announcement last night about another hostage’s death is enough to understand our families’ distress. Unfortunately, I know, understand, and am personally scarred by such announcements, having received a similar one from Abu Obeida himself. You don’t understand what this does to me – it takes me back to those terrible days of sleepless nights and horrible uncertainty, wondering if it’s psychological warfare or, God forbid, the truth. Many families and I are living with an open, bleeding wound that won’t heal, and such announcements cause us all terrible anxiety.”