Two years after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel and abducted hundreds of Israelis on 7 October 2023, a deal to bring them home finally appears to be within touching distance.
On the second anniversary of the most devastating attack in Israel’s history, the families of the hostages taken by Hamas continue to live in anguish and anger. But after months of domestic protests, political chaos and a brutal military campaign in the Gaza Strip, optimism is growing that they will be returned to Israel.
A total of 1,195 Israelis were killed during the attacks on 7 October, with 250 taken hostage into Gaza. Of these, 20 are believed to be alive in captivity, while another 28 bodies are still being held by Hamas.
The Israeli offensive launched in Gaza in response to the attack has seen more than 66,000 Palestinians die in Gaza. It has triggered an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, including mass displacement and famine. A UN commission earlier this month concluded that the Israel had committed genocide in the Strip.
But after so much suffering, a peace plan drawn up by President Donald Trump and Israel is being discussed indirectly by Hamas and Israel in Egypt. On Saturday, Netanyahu said he hoped to announce the release of the hostages “in the coming days”.
In the past week, The Independent has been speaking to the families of those killed and abducted on 7 October. They are desperate to see the fighting end and their loved ones return home, but are scathing about the efforts of the Netanyahu government, who they say have let the hostages become “collateral damage”.
Gil Dickmann, cousin of killed hostage Carmel Gat
Gil Dickmann first learned that his cousin, Carmel Gat, had been killed in captivity when rumours began spreading during a weekly demonstration in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in late August 2024.
“People started looking at me funny. They know that I’m Carmel’s cousin, I thought something was weird in the air,” he recalls.
“Our lives were turned upside down. It took our entire family into a tornado that I feel like never stopped. It kept going for two years.”
Mr Dickmann says their pain could have been brought to an end long ago. Netanyahu’s government, he says, had “countless opportunities to save Carmel’s life and the lives of the hostages who were murdered”.
Just one month before Carmel’s death, he met Netanyahu in person to plead for him to make a ceasefire and hostages deal.
“He didn’t want to stop the war in time. He wanted to keep going. He knew that hostages might be hurt, might die, and he decided he was going to do it anyway. He was planning on prolonging the war for his own political purposes,” he adds.
“[The government] wanted to keep it going, and they decided that the lives of Israeli people, the lives of innocent civilians on the other side of the border, the lives of soldiers were not important enough to stop this war.”
Mr Dickmann called on the families of hostages and the international community to ramp up diplomatic pressure on Hamas to agree to Trump’s 20-point peace plan.
“The way I see it, both Hamas and Netanyahu are the bad guys here. The people suffering from this are innocent civilians on both sides of the border,” he adds.
“Hamas wants to stay in power and rule the entire Palestinian nation, and Netanyahu wants to rule Israel.”
Yonatan Zeigen, son of Vivan Silver, killed on Oct 7
Yonatan Zeigen opposed an Israeli military invasion of Gaza from the offset.
His mother, Canadian-Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, was at one point a board member of Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, before she was killed by Hamas militants in the Be’eri massacre on 7 October.
“I believed already then that we have no business entering Gaza militarily, because 7 October should have been a wake up call to do things differently and not to do more of the same,” Mr Zeigen tells The Independent over the phone.
Vivian, Mr Zeigen says, would very likely have been a “very vocal anti-war activist” were she still alive today.
An invasion of Gaza, Mr Zeigen says, was never the answer, both to secure the return of the hostages and create a viable future in the region.
“The Israeli government doesn’t see that this way,” he said. “They are willing to send soldiers to kill and die to crush the national aspirations of the Palestinians.
“I don’t think it’s the right path for any kind of people to pursue exclusivity and ethnic cleansing.”
Mr Zeigen said the deal presented by Trump and Netanyahu was “not serious”.
“I think it’s rooted in the same kind of dynamics that we’ve seen throughout the history of the conflict: Israeli dominance and Palestinian devaluation,” he says. “I don’t think that it will grant us the future we need, but it can stop to the atrocities that have been committed now.
“If Israel gets the hostages back and the Palestinians get a pause in the catastrophe, then we might create something new.”
Ruby Chen, father of Itay Chen, killed in captivity
Itay Chen, 19, was serving as an IDF soldier at the Nahal Oz military base near northern Gaza when he was captured and killed by Hamas. His body remains in Gaza.
Ruby, his father, says that the families have become “collateral damage” in the two years since the attack.
“It wasn’t obvious that the release of the hostages was the number one objective of the State of Israel and its government,” Mr Chen said. “After two years, we’re still standing with the most important and urgent objective not accomplished.”
Mr Chen is desperate to see a peace deal go through to allow his son’s body to be released and to bring an end to the suffering in Gaza.
“There’s no joy and there’s no competition in who has more pain, at least from my family. After two years, all of us have had enough. We, the families of the hostages, are collateral damage.
“We’re simple people, and sometimes politics gets in the way.”
The Israeli military said in March this year that Itay was most likely dead, but his family have not received information from Hamas about his physical status.
“It’s very difficult to comprehend, or be able to come to terms with what we were told based on intelligence without any physical evidence,” Mr Chen said.
For Mr Chen, the repeated reference to the “20 hostages” remaining in Gaza is difficult to hear. The bodies of those still being held in Gaza should be included in the total number, he said.
“Even though we were notified [of his death], in my book, it doesn’t change his status as a hostage. It’s very, very disappointing when the prime minister, even the president, says ‘20 hostages’,” he said.
“I was in the UN listening to Netanyahu speak and he started naming the hostages. He stopped after 20. I actually wanted to yell out, ‘What about Itay?’”
