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In an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN on Tuesday, Moshe Levi, brother-in-law of Gaza hostage Omri Meran, said: “We cannot normalize the hostage taking, we cannot normalize the terrorist action committed by Hamas on October 7,” while commenting about the ceasefire brooches worn by celebrities at the Oscars. Moshe Levi’s sister and Omri Meran have two daughters.
He continued: “Yesterday we watched the Oscars, we saw people wearing a pin that, for us Israelis, reminds us of the lynching in Ramallah during the Second Intifada. At the same time, I want you to use this. If you support a ceasefire, you must support the return of the hostages. If you support the humanitarian cause of the Palestinians, you must support the humanitarian cause of the hostages… My call to the American public: unite behind us.
If you unite behind the families of the hostages, I can promise you that we can begin to see an end to this. Narrow the focus, focus on the hostages and negotiate solely on that. After that, we have many decades to end this conflict and finally live in coexistence with our neighbors. But we will not be able to live with them in coexistence as long as the hostages are still there and as long as radical elements like Hamas, emboldened by people like those wearing those pins yesterday, remain in power in Gaza.
Tapper took in six relatives of hostages still detained in Gaza. The relatives spoke about their family members remaining in Gaza, the US response to the crisis, as well as the ongoing hostage negotiations.
Hostage families talk about their relatives
Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather Oded Lifshitz remains a hostage in Gaza after his grandmother was returned, said he sees the recent US effort to recover the hostages as a positive development.
Lifshitz mentioned, when discussing the hostage crisis, that his family and others had been “destroyed.” He mentioned the names of several families who have had one member returned, while another still remains in Gaza. He raised the Trupanov family, to which the mother and grandmother returned and where the grandson still lives, as well as the Katzir family.
Oriya Yahbess, cousin of hostage Yarden Bibas, said: “I always have hope because we have nothing else to hold on to.” His cousin, his wife Shiri and his two children, one four years old and the other one year old, remain in Gaza.
Tapper reported that 130 hostages remain held in Gaza, 99 of whom are alive, according to Israeli reports.