Ex-captive Or Levy: Hostages ‘pay the price’ of faltering Gaza truce talks

Or Levy, who was released from Hamas captivity during the previous Gaza ceasefire in February, says the remaining captives “pay the price” of crises in truce-hostage negotiations, after Israel and the US on Thursday recalled their negotiators from talks in Doha.

“In these days — days of confusion, of distrust, of pauses, of ruptures in the talks — I want to make something abundantly clear to you: every time the talks stop, every time a deal blows up, those who pay the price are the hostages,” Levy tells thousands of people at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, ahead of a march to the US Embassy Branch Office.

“We felt it each time, again and again, and every time it was harder,” he says. “It was on us. Our bodies. Our souls.”

“I live two lives,” he says. “I can tell you what it’s like to suffer from endless hunger. What it’s like to have your feet chained for days on end,” he says. “What it’s like to live 50 meters underground, without daylight, without sky, just constant fear that everything will end.”

“I can try to explain. You can try to understand. But what we went through there, and what they’re still going through there, can’t really be understood,” he says.

“What I do understand, and what you also understand, and what decision-makers understand as well, is that whoever’s there, in captivity, is in a very difficult condition,” says Levy.

He demands a deal that would bring back all the hostages — “not part, not in payments, not selektziya,” he says, referring to the Nazi practice of picking out able-bodied Jews for hard labor and sending others straight to the slaughter.

The most recent proposal would secure the release of only 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 slain hostages.

“Bring everyone back, so we can celebrate life again,” says Levy. “For them. For us. For all of us.”