the nightmare of the families of hostages held by Hamas, six months after the attack of October 7

Almost six months after the Hamas attack which cost the lives of 1,170 victims, 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, according to a count by the Israeli army and 96 of them are still alive. franceinfo met an Israeli whose cousin is still held captive.

In a few days, it will be six months since the October 7 attack by Hamas. If the attack cost the lives of more than a thousand people, 130 hostages, of which 96 are still alive, are still being held by Hamas in Gaza according to the Israeli army. Among these hostages, Carmel Gat, 39, one of the 19 captive women. His family is at the end of its rope, particularly his cousin, Guile Dickman, whom franceinfo met.

The interview about ten days ago in the New York Times ofAmit Soussana, the first and only hostage to publicly confess to having suffered sexual violence in Gaza, was a shock to Guile. “How would you feel if you had a cousin in the hands of a terrorist organization and you read that a woman had suffered this kind of thing? ? Imagination goes very far. It is known that in the first days she and other hostages were watched by a guard they described as ‘vicious’. But we don’t really know what that means and what’s happening.”confesses Guile Dickman.

Netanyahu begged to negotiate with Hamas

The man is not well, “it’s horrible or just terrible, it depends on the day”, he blurted. And the sad six-month anniversary of October 7 has no meaning for him. “Every day is important, six months is just a number”, he blurted. “I thought it was going to take years to free hostages, but now I know it’s possible because it happened. The truce during the last week of November proved it to us. Make a deal between Hamas and Israel, it’s possible.”

“Stop wasting time and do it. Sign a deal, bring the hostages home and we can rebuild our lives because we’re in a nightmare.”

Guile Dickman, cousin of a Hamas hostage

at franceinfo

The message is addressed to Benyamin Netanyahu, although accused by many hostage families of refusing negotiations to continue the war and maintain power. “I really want to believe in him because we don’t have another Prime Minister. We have a government, he is responsible for what happened on October 7 for my cousin Carmel and for all the people who were kidnapped, so we’re talking to them. And we don’t want to believe that there’s something more important on their agenda right now than bringing the hostages back alive.”

113 hostages have been released since October 7, only three by force, all the others following negotiations.