Tel Aviv, Israel – Miri Benami tells Al Jazeera she was apprehensive when she couldn’t get via to her son, Yosef Ohana, on October 7.
He was on the Supernova Sukkot gathering, and she or he had heard that Hamas fighters attacked the trance music pageant after they infiltrated southern Israel that day.
After attempting his telephone a number of instances, she ultimately reached his buddy, who had been with Yosef when the assault occurred.
What he advised her was each mom’s worst nightmare.
As fighters from Hamas’s armed wing stormed the pageant, Yosef and his buddy stayed to assist evacuate different festivalgoers, getting injured folks to ambulances and serving to others get away from the gunfire.
Within the ultimate, chaotic moments, fighters neared the 2 males and Yosef took the split-second resolution to run in a single route and his buddy within the different.
As his buddy ran, he regarded again and noticed Yosef taking cowl underneath a automotive. That was the final time anybody noticed him.
Authorities representatives have since visited Miri and confirmed to her that her 24-year-old son’s standing has modified from lacking to kidnapped.
“I miss him a lot, and I really like him.
“I need him again now … to his dwelling,” she says, her voice stuffed with emotion. She searches for extra phrases, however none arrive, and she or he smiles politely, holding again tears.
‘Deliver them dwelling now’
Many households have come to this sq. in Tel Aviv to protest for the return of their family members being held in Gaza.
Individuals embrace, providing one another comforting phrases. Some sing alongside to music from the audio system, gently swinging backwards and forwards.
The households protest recurrently, trying to hold stress on the Israeli authorities to work more durable to search out options for the discharge of their family members.
Individuals maintain up placards with the phrases “Deliver them dwelling now” and footage of their lacking family members.
Each placard is emblazoned with “Hostage and Lacking Households Discussion board”, the identify of a volunteer-led community arrange lower than 24 hours after the assault to assist coordinate nationwide and worldwide efforts to safe their launch.
Miri has customised her placard by attaching it to a yellow lanyard so she will be able to put on a big image of her beloved Yosef round her neck.
Within the image, Yosef is smiling and relaxed as he attended one other, earlier, music pageant – sun shades perched on high of his head, which is cocked to at least one facet.
He wears a black sleeveless t-shirt and earrings and appears in his factor, listening to music amongst smiling partygoers, simply as he had been on October 7.
An extended desk stands at one finish, laid out as if for a dinner with bottles of purple wine and flatware. Pulled as much as it are empty chairs with the phrase “hostage” on the again, symbolising the lacking.
Demonstrators sing and carry out. A metres-long piece paper banner is taped to the bottom for folks to write down notes to their family members and passers-by to write down messages of assist.
‘To the federal government of the world’
Greater than 1,400 folks had been killed in Hamas’s assault, and an estimated 218 persons are in captivity in Gaza, with 4 launched since October 7. Israel’s response to the assault was to bomb Gaza relentlessly, destroying most of its infrastructure and killing 5,791 Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come underneath fireplace for his authorities’s dealing with of the assault and subsequent hostage disaster.
A latest ballot performed by the Jerusalem Publish confirmed that 86 p.c of Israelis imagine the assault was a management failure, and greater than half of these polled referred to as for him to resign.
Miri doesn’t provide an opinion on the federal government, it’s apparent that each one that issues to her, like different households protesting, is that she will get her son again. She struggles to precise herself, fear etched throughout her face.
Air raid sirens ring out, stopping Miri mid-sentence. A quick expression of concern flashes throughout her face as she is ushered in the direction of a automotive parking construction that has develop into a neighborhood bomb shelter in latest weeks.
Some demonstrators appear unperturbed by the piercing screech of the sirens and stay outdoors enjoying music; a sequence of loud blasts are heard within the sky above and Miri flinches as she strikes additional into the automotive park, nonetheless speaking about Yosef.
“We’re all praying for them to return dwelling,” she says, tucking her hair behind her ears.
The blasts seem to have been Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system intercepting rockets headed for Israel.
Individuals seem to have grown more and more accustomed to the sounds and, despite everybody being advised to remain underneath the concrete cowl of the automotive park, demonstrators start to make their approach again outdoors.
The cousin of one other captive advised Al Jazeera the demonstration’s message was not simply to the Israeli authorities however “to the federal government of the entire world”.
“We wish her again now,” he says firmly.
