Having loved ones kidnapped and taken hostage would be a harrowing ordeal for any family.
Yet when relatives of twin brothers Ziv and Gali Berman learned that they were alive and being held by Hamas in Gaza, a poignant and discordant elation washed over them.
“When we were told they were kidnapped, we were joyful,” said the twins’ older brother, Liran Berman, 36. “It’s such a weird thing. It was a glimmer of hope.”
The entire family had endured a nightmarish day on 7 October when Hamas fighters overran Kibbutz Kfar Aza, less than two miles from the border with Gaza, putting it on the frontline of the Palestinian group’s attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis and saw around 240 taken hostage.
Only the fateful circumstance of his wife, Na’ama, testing positive for Covid-19 days earlier prevented Berman spending the end of the week-long Jewish Sukot holiday with his parents and brothers in the bucolic community where he had grown up.
He was at home in Zichron Ya’akov, 90 miles to the north, when news filtered through that the kibbutz had been overrun.
He frantically texted his mother, Talia, 60, Ziv and Gali, both 26, and a third brother, Idan, 32, as they hid in the safe rooms, not daring to call in case their voices revealed their locations to the attackers.
Eventually, after hours of atrocities and gun battles between Hamas attackers and Israeli security forces, Talia was freed along with the brothers’ father, Doron, 64, who has advanced Parkinson’s disease and dementia, which prevented him from fully understanding the horror unfolding around him. Idan was eventually released at 3pm the following day.
It took Israeli forces several more days to regain control over Kfar Aza, at the end of which more than 60 of 400 residents were found to have been murdered and 18 kidnapped.
With many bodies too badly burned or mutilated for easy identification, the Bermans did not know if Ziv and Gali were among the dead or the kidnapped.
Amid the suspense, a gruelling series of funerals followed – sometimes three in one day, as one murdered friend after another was buried. “The week after October 7 was the worst week of my life,” said Berman. “I went to nine funerals, sometimes having to choose which ones to go to because many were being held at the same time, all while waiting for word of my brothers.”
Berman, a care worker for adults with special needs, was assailed by memories of his last text exchanges with two brothers with whom – despite a 10-year age gap – he is especially close, sharing a love of Liverpool Football Club and hip-hop, particularly Kanye West.
“At first, it was just ‘how are you’, ‘are you still in the safe room’, ‘are you safe’,” he said. “Then, when they stopped answering in the evening, I sent them messages saying ‘I love you’ and ‘I miss you’.”
Then, after 10 days, came news that kindled an unexpected optimism : “Israeli officers came and told us that, with 99.9% guarantee, that they were kidnapped by Hamas. It meant they were still alive.
“We are still living on that hope. It’s the only thing we have left.”
That hope brought Berman to Washington this week as part of a delegation of hostages’ relatives organised by Voice For Freedom, a coalition of 350 international groups – many of them Christian Zionists – with the goal of keeping the captives’ plight in the spotlight.
Representatives of four families with kidnapped relatives met with senior Congressional figures from both sides of the aisle, including the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, in a concerted lobbying effort.
One stated goal is to exert pressure on Qatar, which has already mediated the release of some American hostages, to turn up the heat on Hamas to release the remaining abductees.
If Qatar refuses, Voice For Freedom says it should be held accountable under a US law that imposes sanctions on states deemed to sponsor terrorism – from which the country is currently exempt due to its status as a humanitarian conduit to Gaza.
Short of that effort bearing fruit, Berman puts his trust in Israel’s government and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) to do everything possible to free his brothers and other hostages, even as it wages a ruthless military campaign that has already killed more than 10,000 Palestinians – including 4,000 children.
“We know the approximate location of where they are holding the hostages,” said Berman, who admitted to “conflicted” feelings about the military onslaught while Ziv and Gali are in captivity. “We trust the IDF to do whatever it can not to hurt the hostages and not harm civilians, although anything can happen in war.”
That is not a faith shared by families of all hostages, who include dedicated campaigners for a peaceful settlement of the decades-old conflict between Jews and Arabs. Some have voiced fears that Israel’s fierce military offensive, which has triggered a humanitarian crisis and a mass exodus of Palestinians from their homes in northern Gaza, could put their loved ones at further risk.
Berman admits to having no knowledge of his brothers’ physical well-being or confidence that they are being well-treated. “We know the Red Cross has not been allowed to enter,” he said. “Hamas is taking some care of them just to keep them alive. I try not to think about this – I wouldn’t be able to function if I thought about it all the time.”
Further complicating prospects are reports that the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a Hamas offer of a five-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.
Even in the best-case scenario of Ziv and Gali being rescued and reunited with the family, their eldest brother acknowledges that life will never be the same.
“Of course,” he said. “A month in captivity, held in tunnels underground, not knowing if the family is safe. They don’t know if their mother and father are alive.
“We had our lives before October 7 and now we don’t know what will happen in the future. Even if my brothers are released, it will leave life-long scars.”
