The families of Hamas hostages commemorated on Sunday the first anniversary of the pogrom committed by the terrorist group in southern Israel, on October 7, 2023, during an event which took place in the presence of foreign diplomats at the Forum headquarters families of hostages and missing persons in Tel Aviv.
The objective of this event was “to draw the attention of the whole world” to the fate reserved for the hostages, the Forum said, and to “highlight the urgent need to act to obtain the release of those who are still held in captivity. »
Speeches were given by former hostages and relatives of captives still in Gaza. In the room, foreign diplomats and representatives of international human rights organizations to whom the leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, confided that he had “sometimes the impression that you care more about the fate of the hostages than is the case of the government of Israel.
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Stephanie L. Hallet, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy, said her work in the hostage negotiations “changed my life” – a mission that began a year ago, on October 8, first to report on American citizens who had been brutally murdered by Hamas, then on the fate of those who were taken hostage.
“We have celebrated far too many birthdays and holidays without these loved ones being where they were supposed to be,” Hallet said. She then noted that “too many other horrific events have occurred”, including the execution of Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages, who had been coldly executed by their captors at the end of August.
She promised that the United States would continue to work alongside the international community to secure an agreement guaranteeing the release of the hostages.
Stephanie Hallett, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy, at an event in Tel Aviv to mark the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas pogrom, October 13, 2024. (Family Forum hostages)
“I want every family member to know – not just American citizens, but everyone: We carry your loved ones’ stories with us,” Hallet said. “We tell these stories and we carry them with us every day. It’s not just work we do because we have to. It’s a job that’s part of us.”
British Ambassador Simon Waters and German envoy Steffen Seibert echoed his comments, saying in a mix of Hebrew and English that the ambassadors had failed in their duties. towards the hostages and their families, and that they now had to ask themselves whether they had really tried to find all possible solutions.
“Talks on a cease-fire and an agreement opening the door to the release of the hostages have taken place in silence in recent weeks,” said Seibert, who stressed that Israel was currently concentrating all its efforts on pay attention to the fighting between the Jewish State and the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We must be willing to seek new paths. Every new idea is worth exploring, every new proposal is worth checking – nothing should be taboo,” he continued.
Former hostage Aviva Siegel, who was released last November during a week-long truce, spoke about her experience in captivity. She expressed her fears regarding the fate of Keith, her husband, who remains in the hands of his captors today.
“You have to learn to disappear and not feel anything,” she explained as she described a young girl who has never been touched in her life and who finds herself attacked by a Hamas terrorist. “If the return of dead hostages wasn’t enough to wake the world, what should we do? “, she asked.
“I was there,” she said. “I was there for 51 days. I have been to hell and Keith, my husband, the girls and all the hostages are still there.”
“No human being in the world should have to go through what Keith and the hostages are going through,” she added.
Orly Gilboa, the mother of Daniella Gilboa who was 20 years old in the Gaza tunnels, shared the same view.
Gilboa asked participants to remember their twenties and how their parents might react when they stayed out later than they expected.
“Try to imagine what I have been feeling for over a year,” she said.
“I don’t need your pity. I don’t need your thoughts and prayers,” she continued. “I’m asking you to do what leaders are supposed to do: demand, negotiate. Do what you would have done to save your own child,” she begged.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid attends an event in Tel Aviv marking the first anniversary of the Hamas pogrom, October 7, October 13, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Luis Har, who spent 129 days in Hamas jails before being rescued by the Israeli army in February, said his return to Israel – along with the return of four other of his relatives – was “the proof that it is possible” to save the remaining hostages.
“We must fight together to achieve this without distinction of religion or race,” he said. “We, the people of Israel, must be united and work together to bring everyone back. We must not lose hope.”
97 of the 251 hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, are still in Gaza, according to estimates. The deaths of 34 of them were officially confirmed by the Israeli army.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a week-long truce at the end of November, and four hostages were previously released. Eight captives were rescued alive by the troops, and the bodies of 37 hostages were also found, three of whom were accidentally killed by the army while trying to escape their captors.
Hamas also holds two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two Israeli army soldiers who were killed in 2014.
