As Israel and Hamas indicated that they had been nearing a hostage exchange deal, some households of Israeli hostages kidnapped to Gaza had been grappling on Tuesday with conflicting feelings: a rising optimism that their family members would return that was chilled by a gnawing concern that the deal may collapse — or worse, that they is likely to be left behind.
“If we’ve been on a roller coaster, now we’re going up,” stated Gili Roman, whose sister Yarden Roman was taken hostage from Be’eri, a Gaza border kibbutz, through the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7. “The fear is that the higher we go, the farther we’ll fall. There’s a lot of anxiety.”
The phrases of the proposed deal haven’t been introduced, however folks acquainted with the hostage negotiations stated they’ve centered on Hamas releasing roughly 50 ladies and kids in alternate for about 150 Palestinian ladies and kids jailed by Israel. Israeli authorities have stated round 240 folks had been kidnapped throughout Hamas’s assault.
Yifat Zailer — whose cousin Shiri Bibas was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz together with Ms. Bibas’s husband, Yarden Bibas, and their two red-haired youngsters, Ariel and Kfir — stated her anxious look forward to information has been tinged by the hope that she may quickly see her family members and the concern one thing may go awry.
“I’m trying to take care not to be happy too quickly,” Ms. Zailer stated on Tuesday. “It could collapse tomorrow, for any reason. We might see the days pass, the hostages returning — and Shiri and her children not among them.”
Kfir, lower than a 12 months previous, is without doubt one of the youngest Israelis kidnapped by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7. His household in Israel nonetheless doesn’t know the place he and his brother are being held, whether or not they’re with their mother and father — or even when they’re nonetheless alive, Ms. Zailer stated.
However even when Ms. Bibas, Kfir and Ariel return house as a part of the rising hostage deal — removed from assured — Yarden, her husband, is more likely to keep behind.
“We are being torn apart,” Ms. Zailer stated, calling it an inconceivable scenario. “It breaks your heart,” she added.
At Kibbutz Nir Oz, 76 folks had been taken hostage on Oct. 7, based on Irit Lahav, a kibbutz spokeswoman.
Sheffa Phillips-Bahat, 15, a resident of the kibbutz, had two cousins who had been kidnapped by Hamas — brothers Or, 16, and Yagil Yaakov, 12. Their father, Yair Yaakov, was additionally taken hostage.
Yagil appeared in a video launched on Nov. 9 by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group based mostly in Gaza that invaded Israeli cities on Oct. 7 alongside Hamas, wherein he requested Israel to convey him house. Hostages usually seem in such movies below duress and their statements are more likely to have been coerced.
Ms. Phillips-Bahat and her household haven’t heard whether or not her cousins can be amongst these coming house in a hostage alternate, however they continue to be optimistic.
“I can’t think of anything but getting the hostages back,” she stated.
David Blumenfeld and Carmit Hoomash contributed reporting.
