The mothers of two Israelis held hostage by Hamas since October 7 called Tuesday for international help to free them, with one saying 60 days in captivity was “too much”.
Heavy metal drummer Yotam Haim, 28, had been due to play at a festival in Tel Aviv on the day he was kidnapped from his home in kibbutz Kfar Aza, his mother Iris said.
“What was meant to be a very nice shabbat, Saturday, became a horrible hell for him, for us,” she said during an online panel organised by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
In voice messages and texts, Yotam was initially “really calm”, his mother said, but became increasingly afraid as the scope of the attack became clearer, with fighters eventually setting fire to his house.
“For a half hour he just asked for help: ‘Please, please, send somebody, I don’t have air, I cannot breathe.’ And we couldn’t help,” she said.
His mother said she had been overseas to rally support for the hostages’ release, and added: “We need the world’s help.”
Hamas took around 240 hostages back to the Gaza Strip after its fighters streamed across the border into Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, Israeli officials say.
Vowing to eliminate the Islamist group, Israel launched a military campaign that has killed around 15,900 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Under a week-long truce deal, Hamas released 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
But that deal collapsed on Friday, and Israel subsequently withdrew negotiators from Qatar after a dead end in talks aimed at securing a renewed pause in hostilities.
Hamas has ruled out more releases until a permanent ceasefire is agreed. The Israeli military says nearly 140 hostages are still being held in Gaza.
Idit Ohel, the mother of 21-year-old Alon Ohel, who was kidnapped from the Tribe of Nova desert rave, said she believed the government and military were “doing all their best to bring our sons home”.
But she called for them to act quickly to resume negotiations.
“Sixty days is too much,” she said, her voice rising.
“I don’t want 61 days, I don’t want 65 days. I want them back now. What the government and the IDF (military) are doing, they are doing because they have to, but we need other governments to help.”
