My cousin is on the hostage list for release by Hamas – I hope he will still be alive
As the terms of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas set out, Israeli hostages held in Gaza will soon be released for the first time since 2023. For their families at home, the 15 months since have been agonising. Nicole Lampert speaks to two who are anxiously awaiting the return of their loved ones
On Sunday the world will watch as the first group of hostages, who have been held in Gaza for 15 months, are released by Hamas. This is the expectation. For the hostage families, nothing is ever certain: whether the deal will even go ahead, who will be released, and which of the hostages are alive and which are dead.
Just 33 of the 98 people being held by Hamas are set to be freed in the next six weeks under a deal which has taken months to agree and will involve up to 50 Palestinian prisoners being released in return for each hostage.
The 33 people set to be returned home in the next few weeks are taken from a larger list of 40 first presented by Israel more than six months ago. They comprise the women and children, men over 50 and those who are known to be injured. The bodies of seven on the initial list of 40 have been recovered by the IDF from Gaza during the last few months of brutal fighting, during which thousands of Palestinians have been killed. It is believed that some of the 33 on the list are dead too.
For those whose loved ones aren’t on the list of those to be freed, the wait will continue; joy remains far, far out of reach, with many hurdles ahead. Negotiations to get to the second part of the ceasefire deal – under which the rest of the hostages are to be released and Israel is to leave Gaza – won’t even start for two weeks.
Becoming close friends through their shared pain, hostage family members Adam Ma’anit and Moshe Lavi, whose relatives were neighbours at the Nahal Oz kibbutz, 4.3 miles from the border with Gaza, and who were kidnapped together, now find themselves divided.
Brighton resident Adam’s cousin Tsachi Idan, now 50, is on the list despite Hamas having claimed Tsachi was dead in a propaganda video in January, though they never showed his body. Meanwhile, Omri Miran, the brother-in-law of Moshe, is not on the list. He appeared in a Hamas video in April looking damaged and thin, but alive.
The pair have been advocating for their loved ones both separately and together for a long time – including in London on Friday – but the coming days may bring very different outcomes for them and their families. Here they speak about their conflicting emotions.
Moshe Lavi is from the city of Sderot in southern Israel, works as a management consultant and lives in New York. Omri is married to Moshe’s sister Lishay and is the father of Roni, three, and Alma, 18 months.
“Since 7 October, we have had to put all our emotions aside because otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to function. They can overwhelm us at night, when we are under our blankets and no one can see us, but we know we have to wake up ready to fight another day.
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We are not really suffering compared to what our loved ones are going through every day in captivity. And so, we fight to make sure people know that every day they are still in Gaza. Omri is a shiatsu teacher and a gardener in the kibbutz; he healed people in his clinic and nature in the garden. Lishay helps prepare the local Bedouin community for university. These are peaceful people.
On 7 October, during the terror attack on Nahal Oz, a 17-year-old called Tomer Eliaz-Arava was used by Hamas to try to entice other residents to open the doors to their safe rooms. Omri and Lishay opened their door to find themselves surrounded by attackers with guns. They were taken to the home of Tsachi and his family across the road. Hamas had already murdered Tsachi’s 18-year-old daughter by shooting her in the head as they attempted to get into the family’s safe room.
Eventually, at 1.30pm, they took Omri, Tsachi and two American ladies into Gaza. Lishay and everyone in the house were instructed to stay put otherwise they would be shot. Lishay’s last words to Omri were, ‘I love you; I’ll take care of the girls. Don’t try and be a hero.’ He responded that he loved her and that was the last time she saw him.
In November 2023, when the last hostages were released, some of them said they had seen him in captivity. In late April, Hamas released a psychological warfare video featuring him and he looked unwell and malnourished, but at least we knew he was alive.
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Adam and I have been allies since the early days of this war, working together to bring our loved ones home. We met at the UN in New York and a dinner cemented our friendship. He and his wife Heidi have been doing amazing work to raise awareness, with regular vigils in Brighton, and they have inspired me.
Being able to talk to each other brings us strength because we have each other to count on. We talk strategies but also tease each other about football – I’m Arsenal, he’s Tottenham. We share a love of Monty Python.
I am the more pessimistic of the pair of us. This time it does feel different but until the first hostage is released, I won’t believe it is really happening. We will rejoice in every one who comes home because all of the hostage relatives have become one big family. It is hard knowing Omri is not on the list but we have to hope that every hostage that does come home is one step closer to Omri returning too. I can only look forward and I can’t wait to see Tsachi and Omri home and for Adam and I to embrace them together.”
Adam Ma’anit is an Israeli who lives in Brighton with his wife and child and is a communications officer for the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He grew up visiting cousins including Tsachi at Nahal Oz. Tsachi is father of Ma’ayan, who was killed on 7 October, Yael, 12, and Shacher, 10.
“The good news is that Tsachi is on the list because he’s 50 so he just made the threshold, but knowing Moshe, knowing Omri’s story, shows how arbitrary it all is. Omri is just a few years younger than Tsachi. They are both fathers, husbands, and they’ve been there together.
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If Tsachi comes out alive in phase one, there will be a feeling of joy and relief but also of huge guilt too. I have become very close with Moshe and I feel entangled in his welfare and of all the hostages really. We have become an extended family because no one else knows what it is like.
Both of us are in this situation where we are slightly outside looking in, feeling a bit useless. As we both live outside Israel, we are also more aware of how the country is perceived; we both get hatred and denial from people on social media who claim ridiculous things about Hamas treating the hostages ‘well’.
For so long it has been impossible to relax, because there is so much work to do. We cannot stop advocating for the hostages, our loved ones. And so even if Tsachi comes home, I will not stop.
We can be critical of the Israeli government – many hostage families are – but we would never have been in this situation if Western nations weren’t treating the people who fund Hamas as our allies. If the world had stood firm against the idea of hostage-taking.
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It has been a hellish 15 months. The deal feels booby-trapped; part of Hamas’s psychological warfare to dangle the prospect of our loved ones coming home and then staggering it out in little groups of three with each group being paraded and argued over.
Hamas put Tsachi in one of their videos and said he was dead but didn’t show his body. More games. But we have to believe that Tsachi will come home alive. We’ve also tried to prepare ourselves psychologically for the possibility that he won’t. It’s hard.
People have asked me if I will return to Israel when Tsachi gets home and the answer is yes, but I don’t know if it will be for a funeral or a celebration. Even if he does come home alive, any celebration will be bittersweet knowing there are still dozens of hostages like Omri languishing in a tunnel.”