Two years of pain and anguish. Seven hundred and thirty days have passed since one of the deadliest terror attacks in history killed 1,200.
Countless sleepless nights since Hamas seized 251 Israelis, with 48 cruelly remaining in captivity. I knew more than 90 of these hostages. October 7 was a watershed moment. It is a day that will go down in infamy not just for Israel but the whole civilised world. Never has such cruelty been unleashed on a modern democratic nation.
Israel remains a country experiencing a deep collective trauma. It is hard for people outside Israel to relate to the sheer magnitude of 7th October. We are, after all, a tiny country with a tight-knit population – almost all Israelis know of someone who was killed or survived that day.
Had an attack of a similar scale occurred in the UK, then tens of thousands of people would have been killed, relative to its much larger population.
The conflict in Gaza ever since that day has prolonged the agony. The children of Gaza have endured unimaginable pain as they have been forced to contend with displacement, poor sanitary conditions and the struggles of accessing food.
Gaza has been devastated during the intense fighting between Israel and the Hamas terror group – a tragedy tragically guaranteed by Hamas’s sick strategy of fighting from within civilian areas.
Every home, school, and hospital has been weaponised and turned into a combat area by Hamas for their violent goal of maximising suffering for their own Palestinian population as well as Israelis. Hamas’ use of the hostages as a bargaining chip means the war has dragged on and on.
Hostage families have endured the emotional torture of not knowing the whereabouts and condition of their loved ones – children, parents and grandparents. They have been denied access to humanitarian organisations since the very beginning. Callous Hamas propaganda videos featuring hostages have heightened the heartache.
Hamas murdered my grandfather. October 7 is the day my world stood still - Daniel Lifshitz | Daniel Lifshitz
My own grandparents were kidnapped from their kibbutz in southern Israel, Nir Oz. My grandmother Yocheved was released alive after 16 days of captivity, but my beloved grandfather Oded, a journalist and peace activist, was murdered and his body returned in February this year.
More than a quarter of their 400 neighbours were either killed or kidnapped, with nine remaining in captivity. The failure of the UK and its Western allies to apply pressure on Hamas to release the hostages has backfired repeatedly.
As the West singularly turned its ire on Israel, Hamas grew emboldened, and it condemned the region to prolonged violence. Meanwhile, it also fuelled an ever-increasing threat to Jews around the world – a danger tragically brought home by the attack on a synagogue in Manchester last week.
The grief has gone on too long. The Gaza peace plan, which is on the table at the moment, presents us with a desperately needed opportunity to end this terrible conflict.
Hamas must lay down its arms and release the hostages, while Israel must end its military operation and help lay the groundwork for a better future in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas sitting down for indirect negotiations in Egypt this week offers hope to the families of all hostages, irrespective of whether their loved ones remain in Gaza, have been rescued alive, or their bodies recovered.
United by trauma, we have committed to campaigning until the very last hostage is returned home to Israel. Our agony is shared, and we can only begin the difficult process of healing once closure arrives through their release.
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