"The whole world must demand the release of Hamas hostages"
Niva Wenkert and Dani Miran have not heard from their sons for 34 days. Since 7 October, Omer, 22, and Omri, 46, have been held in Gaza. Both were abducted by Hamas and other terrorist groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad on that fateful Saturday. In addition to Omer and Omri, more than 200 other people - including children and elderly people - have been held by terrorist organisations in Gaza for more than a month. During these 34 days, no humanitarian association such as the International Red Cross has been able to visit and treat them due to Hamas' refusal, despite the fact that many are in need of medical attention.
"Omer likes festivals, music, having a good time," Niva Wenkert recalls from a central square in Tel Aviv where the families of the abductees gather. The modern and open Israeli city, like many other cities in the country, has been very supportive of the hostages' families, offering numerous spaces for them to gather, pray and tell the press the stories of their loved ones.
Omer was one of the many young Israelis and foreigners who went to the Nova music festival on 7 October, near the Gaza border and one of the first places to be attacked by Hamas terrorists that morning.
Omer went to the festival with a friend, who was killed by the terrorists after they threw a grenade into a shelter where the young people were hiding. Omer managed to get out, but was kidnapped and taken to Gaza. His family and the Israeli government did not discover this until Hamas posted a video on Telegram showing Omer in a van, beaten, with the terrorists. A photograph was also released showing him lying on the ground, tied up and in his underwear.
"Israel has to do everything it can to bring the hostages home, all of them," says Niva, who also wants to stress that Hamas "is the same as Daesh". "What happened on 7 October has nothing to do with the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, it is something that affects everyone," she says. That is why she calls on the whole world to demand the release of the hostages and to unite to finally achieve it.
In addition to the Nova festival, several kibbutzim in southern Israel were raided by Hamas on the morning of 7 October. One of them was Nazal Oz, a few kilometres from the Gaza Strip. In this community lived Omri Miran with his wife and daughters - aged 6 months and 2 years - until the terrorist group broke into his home and abducted him and other residents of the kibbutz.
"Every morning he (Omri) cooked breakfast for his daughters and took them to kindergarten. They were very close," says Omri's father Dani. Dani called his son after seeing what was happening in the south. At first, only the alarms went off, which is common in the area, but then he saw on the news that terrorists had entered the kibbutzim.
"When I go to bed I wonder if my son has sheets"
"My son told me on the phone that from his window he was seeing hundreds of terrorists on the streets," Dani explains. Omri grabbed a few knives and locked himself and his family in the mamad (a safe room that serves as a bomb shelter), from where he kept in touch with his father.
Dani received the last message from his son at 10:20 when Omri was forced to open the door of the mamad. His 17-year-old neighbour begged him to do so while the terrorists held a gun to his head. After leaving, they took him to another house and tied him and another man up while his 2-year-old daughter shouted "my daddy, my daddy". They were subsequently taken to Gaza and have not been heard from since.
Dani found out what happened to his son days later when his daughter-in-law told him. She and the girls were able to survive, albeit with great psychological trauma. "Until 6 p.m. on 7 October, I thought I no longer had a son, I no longer had granddaughters or a family," Dani recalls.
"I can't eat, I can't sleep. When I go to bed I wonder if my son has sheets, I wonder how he feels," he laments. Dani also talks about Hamas' refusal to allow the Red Cross to visit hostages and the humanitarian aid entering Gaza. "As a human being and as a Jew I don't want the children in Gaza to suffer, I want them to have food and water, but I would also like someone to take care of the hostages," he admits.
One of Israel's current priorities is to rescue the more than 200 hostages. With the aim of reaching an agreement, a delegation from the Mossad has travelled to Qatar in the last few hours together with members of the CIA. In this regard, Dani stresses that Israel "can do nothing", since "it has no one to negotiate with". "Only Egypt and Qatar can negotiate," he says.
Omer and Omri are just two of the more than 200 kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza. Niva and Dani, meanwhile, reflect the desperation, but also the hope and resilience, of hundreds of families hoping for their loved ones to return home soon.
