No summer break for his family during ceaseless push for deal, says hostage’s brother
Michael Levy, older brother of hostage Or Levy, says families of captives have no choice but to keep moving forward in effort to bring loved ones home
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
It was over a week ago that the families of hostages Or Levy, Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Eliya Cohen went public with video footage of their loved ones being taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7, crammed into the back of a pickup truck headed to Gaza.
In that video, Or Levy, 33, can be seen huddled in the truck, looking terrified and in shock. This was minutes after he presumably watched his wife, Eynav, being killed by terrorists after the couple attempted to hide in a bomb shelter in a field near the Supernova desert rave.
All three men are bloody and appear dazed as the Hamas terrorists shout epithets in Arabic and pull their heads up by their hair.
Or Levy’s family first saw the video six months ago, according to his brother.
“We just saw the part with Or,” said Michael Levy, the oldest of three brothers, of whom Or is the youngest. “It was the first sign of life we had of him until then. It felt unreal and from that moment on, I knew we would eventually publish it because the world has to understand what kind of monsters we’re dealing with, ones who kill and maim and threaten and revel in that.”
Three of the four hostage families whose sons were in the truck made the decision to publish the video at a time when the so-called Netanyahu hostage deal proposed by US President Joe Biden in May has made little progress.
“The video didn’t bring about a deal but it made the noise we wanted it to make,” said Levy. “It got to every media outlet and we all interviewed with various media outlets because while it’s terrible to see their suffering, people wanted to see it.”
Or and Eynav met in high school and were friends before their relationship deepened and they married five years ago. They and their 3-three-year-old son, Almog, were living in Givatayim outside of Tel Aviv when the couple went to the Supernova desert rave in the early morning hours of October 7.
Almog is being cared for by both sets of grandparents, who both live in Rishon Lezion.
“It’s the little details that are hard,”said Levy, “like where to enroll Almog for nursery school next year, in Rishon or Givatayim? Will Or be home by then?”
The struggle to bring home his brother Or and the other hostages has taken over their lives, said Michael Levy.
“It’s funny, at one time, I was just Michael and now I’m just the brother of Or,” said Levy, who manages a department in a large Israeli company but has worked solely on freeing his brother since October 7. He handles the complicated bureaucracy, travels with the missions of hostage families abroad and conducts media interviews.
It’s particularly difficult right now, said Levy, as the school year is ending, bringing summer vacation, trips and free time for many.
“That’s all fine, but we can’t do that. We can’t go on with our lives,” said Levy. “Not my family and not our friends, because we don’t know what will be.”
Levy is focused on pressuring whoever he can find to find a way forward for the hostage deal proposed by Biden. He’ll spend the next weeks flying with missions organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum to visit diplomats and politicians abroad.
“We have to force Hamas to agree to it,” he said. “That’s what we need. If you understand anything, you know that the IDF can’t possibly save all the hostages. What’s left is a deal that will save them all, that’s the simple truth.”
One place Levy hasn’t spent much time lobbying is the Knesset, as he feels a tremendous disconnect between the elected politicians and the hostage families.
He said his family had not been contacted by any elected official after his brother was taken hostage, neither from the opposition or the coalition, until the release of the video last week. He called those phone calls “too little, too late.”
“I’d rather work on projects that can maybe make a difference and not talk to people who only care about their political future and how much money is in their budget,” said Levy.
It’s hard to feel positive, but Levy feels he doesn’t have any choice but to keep on working.
“I don’t have the privilege to think about anything else,” he said. “I don’t have the privilege to feel sorry for myself or to expect anyone else to do it. I need my brother and all the other hostages to come home.”
