The families of hostages held in Gaza have said they are living in a “nightmare” as they endure an agonising wait to see if their loves ones are among those freed.
Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal for the release of 50 women and children in return for 150 Palestinian women and children being freed from Israeli jails during a four-day ceasefire.
The relatives of some of the 240 hostages in Gaza have said they are grappling with feeling both optimistic about the deal, and fearful their loved ones may be left behind. The families said they were in the dark about who would be released and when.
Keren Schem said she feared the deal might collapse but she was praying for the release of her daughter, Mia Schem, 21, who was abducted from the Supernova music festival. “It’s like Russian roulette. We don’t know who’s going to come out,” Keren Schem, 51, said. “They’re talking about children and their mothers so I don’t think that Mia will come out today or tomorrow or even the day after. But I’m praying that she will because nobody really knows.”
Mia, a French-Israeli tattoo artist, appeared to be injured in a hostage video released by Hamas on 17 October. Her mother said her daughter needed to be released urgently so she could receive medical treatment. “I don’t know where she is, if she’s alive, and in what condition she’s in, if she eats, if she sleeps, if they’re hurting her. It’s so terrible,” she said.
Eylon Keshet said he was afraid that his cousin, Yarden Bibas, 34, would be split from his wife, Shiri, 32 and their two boys, Ariel, four, and 10-month-old Kfir, who is thought to be the youngest hostage.
“I’m afraid that this is what it means, but, unfortunately, I’m not optimistic from the very beginning that Yarden was held together with them because he was kidnapped separately from them and I don’t think Hamas cares much to reunite families,” Keshet said.
Footage of Shiri clutching her two red-haired children as she was abducted was posted online. Yarden appeared in a separate video with an apparent head injury. “We still don’t know whether Shiri, Ariel and Kfir will be a part of this deal. And we still don’t have information about their wellbeing, so we can’t feel relieved until they’ve actually made it back here,” Keshet said.
Itay Raviv, three generations of whose family are being held hostage, said he was wrestling with “a mixture of feelings”. His aunt and uncle, Ruti and Avraham Munder, both 78, were abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz along with their daughter Keren and her son Ohad, who turned nine in captivity. Keren’s brother, Roee Munder, 50, was among the 1,200 people killed after Hamas stormed southern Israel on 7 October.
“We’re in an ongoing nightmare,” Raviv said. “We feel both excited, but still very nervous and scared because nothing is promised and we don’t know who is going to be released, if any, because we cannot trust Hamas. We must remember that, according to what is being reported, it’s only going to be women and children, and I have some other family members, my uncle and aunt, in Hamas’s hands as well.”
He said the family had not been told if any of the four captives would be released and that it was “all assumptions at the moment”.
Raviv, 27, the CEO of a non-profit organisation, said the family was preparing for a memorial service for Roee on Wednesday afternoon, as they waited for news about the hostages. “We’re going there without his parents, without his sister, without his nephew, and this is the same way the funeral was, which is just another sad thing that happens in our reality,” he said.
Sharone Lifschitz, whose 85-year-old mother, Yocheved Lifshitz, was released by Hamas after 16 days in captivity, said it was “devastating” that her father, Oded, 83, who is still being held hostage, would unlikely to be among those released in the first stages of the deal.
The first hostage release is now not expected until Friday at the earliest, and the total number of those freed could rise. The Israeli government said the ceasefire would be extended by a day for every 10 additional hostages released, but it is unclear who that would include.
“We are very anxious in terms of going forward. When will it be our turn? It’s just really hard to survive emotionally. It’s the most horrific extension of a position that was impossible to begin with,” Lifschitz said. “We are in the hands of a terrorist organisation that is doing everything to maximise our pain and the suffering.”
Lifschitz, a London-based artist and academic, said she believed her father, a veteran journalist and peace activist from Nir Oz, would think it was right that children were being released before him. “If there is a queue for the way out, he and quite a few other members will be fighting to be at the end of the queue and give their place ahead. That’s what I feel,” she said.
She said her mother was also in agreement. “She thinks very similar to me, that we have to return the children, that there is nothing else to it.”
The British niece of Ditza Heiman, 84, a retired social worker and widow taken from Nir Oz, said they were “desperate for good news”. The last time anyone heard from the mother of four was at about 4pm on 7 October when a Hamas fighter answered her phone.
Her niece, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s agonising. She’s 84 so she could be eligible for this deal but we don’t know, none of the loved ones do. Every family’s suffering that can be reduced is a good thing, but we don’t know whether it will be us.”
