Families of of hostages mark year since October 7 with foreign diplomats

By Jessica Steinberg

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13 October 2024, 10:23 pm

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Ex-hostage Aviva Siegel speaks at the Hostages Families Forum on October 13, 2024. (Screenshot)

Families of of hostages mark one year since October 7 with foreign diplomats at the headquarters of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Tel Aviv.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid thanks the ambassadors present for standing with the families behind the scenes and on the world stage.

“It sometimes felt like you cared more than the government of Israel,” he says.

US embassy deputy chief of mission Stephanie L. Hallett says her effort on the hostage negotiations has been “life-changing work” that began one year ago on October 8, first accounting for those US citizens brutally murdered by Hamas, and then those taken hostage.

“We want the families to know that we carry the stories of your loved ones with us,” says Hallett. “This is not just work that we do, because it’s part of us.”

Her words are echoed by UK Ambassador Simon Walters and German Ambassador Steffen Seibert, who speaks in a mixture of Hebrew and English and says that the ambassadors have failed the hostage families, and must ask themselves if they have really tried everything.

“It’s been a quiet few weeks [on the hostage front],” says Seibert, noting Israel’s current focus on battles with Hezbollah in Lebanon. “We must be willing to search for new ways. Nothing should be taboo.”

Ex-hostage Aviva Siegel speaks with anguish about her experiences in Gaza, as she struggles to get her husband Keith released.

She asks people to imagine themselves as hostages.

“You have to vanish and not feel,” she says, describing a young girl who has never been touched and who finds herself assaulted by a Hamas terrorist. “If hostages coming back dead wasn’t enough to wake up the world, then what do we need to do?”

Siegel is echoed by Orly Gilboa, mother of Daniella Gilboa, who turned 20 in the tunnels of Gaza.

Gilboa asks the audience to recall being 20 years old, and how their parents reacted when they were merely late getting home.

“Try to imagine how I feel for over a year,” she says. “Act as if you are saving your own child.”