As the hostage crisis approaches, families wait with hope and fear
As Israel and Hamas signaled they were nearing a hostage swap deal, some families of Israeli hostages abducted to Gaza struggled Tuesday with conflicting emotions: a growing optimism that their loved ones would return, tempered by a nagging fear that the deal would fail. collapse – or worse, that they may be left behind.
“If we have been on a roller coaster, now we are going up,” said Gili Roman, whose sister Yarden Roman was taken hostage from Be’eri, a kibbutz on the Gaza border, during the Hamas-led attack on October 7. “The fear is that the higher we go, the further we will fall. There is a lot of concern.”
Terms of the proposed deal have not yet been announced, but people familiar with the hostage negotiations said they focused on the release of about 50 children and women by Hamas in exchange for about 150 Palestinian women and minors jailed by Israel . Israeli authorities have said that around 240 people were kidnapped during the Hamas attack.
Yifat Zailer — whose cousin Shiri Bibas was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with Ms. Bibas’ husband, Yarden Bibas, and their two red-haired children, Ariel and Kfir — said her anxious wait for news is tinged by the hope that she will soon seeing loved ones and the fear that something could go wrong.
“I try to make sure I don’t get happy too quickly,” Ms. Zailer said Tuesday. “It could collapse tomorrow for any reason. Perhaps we will see the days pass, the hostages return – and Shiri and her children not among them.”
Kfir, less than a year old, is one of the youngest Israelis kidnapped by Hamas-led gunmen on October 7. His family in Israel still does not know where he and his brother are being held, whether they are with their parents — or even if they are still alive, Ms. Zailer said.
But even if Mrs. Bibas, Kfir and Ariel return home as part of the emerging hostage crisis — far from guaranteed — Yarden, her husband, will likely stay behind.
“We are being torn,” Ms. Zailer said, calling it an impossible situation. “It breaks your heart,” she added.
At Kibbutz Nir Oz, 76 people were taken hostage on October 7, said Irit Lahav, a spokeswoman for the kibbutz.
Sheffa Phillips-Bahat, 15, a resident of the kibbutz, had two cousins who were kidnapped by Hamas: brothers Or, 16, and Yagil Yaakov, 12. Their father, Yair Yaakov, was also taken hostage.
Yagil appeared in a video released on November 9 by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group based in Gaza that invaded Israeli cities with Hamas on October 7, asking Israel to take him home. Hostages often appear in such videos under duress and their statements are likely coerced.
Ms. Phillips-Bahat and her family have not yet heard whether her nieces and nephews would also come home in a hostage situation, but they remain optimistic.
“I can’t think of anything other than getting the hostages back,” she said.
David Blumenfeld And Carmit Hoomash reporting contributed.