{"id":2214952,"date":"2024-04-07T14:16:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T18:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/family-of-israeli-hostages-speak-out-six-months-after-oct-7-attack-inhumane-conditions\/"},"modified":"2024-04-07T14:19:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T18:19:05","slug":"family-of-israeli-hostages-speak-out-six-months-after-oct-7-attack-inhumane-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/family-of-israeli-hostages-speak-out-six-months-after-oct-7-attack-inhumane-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli hostages&#8217; family shares about &#8216;inhumane conditions&#8217; six months post Oct. 7 attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffamily-of-israeli-hostages-speak-out-six-months-after-oct-7-attack-inhumane-conditions%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2214952&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The \u2064families\u200b of Israeli hostages await their return, \u200bwith 133 hostages still\u2064 held\u200b by Hamas after 1,200 \u200dfatalities and 240 hostages in the Oct 7. attack. Concerns about \u2064<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-nazi-guard-living-in-tennessee-deported-to-germany\/\" title=\"Former Nazi Guard Living In Tennessee Deported To Germany\">inhumane conditions<\/a> and demand for release prompt a march in Washington, D.C. Former hostages&#8217; families call for\u200d global action against\u2062 Hamas&#8217;s atrocities. Families of Israeli hostages anticipate their return\u200b while 133 hostages remain \u2064in Hamas captivity following the Oct 7. attack. The ongoing concern revolves around the inhuman conditions \u200cand the urgent need for release, leading to\u200c a planned march in Washington,\u2064 D.C. The families\u200b of former hostages advocate for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/progressive-paddies-irish-pm-to-push-globalist-agenda-during-u-s-st-patricks-day-visit\/\" title=\"Progressive Paddies - Irish PM to Push Globalist Agenda During U.S. St. Patrick's Day Visit\">global intervention<\/a> to address Hamas&#8217;s egregious actions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>On the six-month anniversary of Hamas\u2019s attack against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Israel<\/a>, many families of the hostages taken by Hamas on the Oct 7. attack are still waiting for their family members to come home. <\/p>\n<div>\n<p>More than 1,200 people were killed and 240 others taken hostage during the attack, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/middle-east\/hamas-hostages-israel-gaza-41432124\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"with 133 hostages\">with 133 hostages<\/a> still being held by the terrorist organization. A former hostage and families of those currently held in captivity will march on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/washington-dc\/\" title=\"with 133 hostages\">Washington, D.C.<\/a>, on Sunday afternoon to demand the release of the remaining hostages.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> spoke with the family members of Israeli hostages Romi Gonen and Or Levy, who shed light on their missing loved ones, the conditions hostages are living under, and the threat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hamas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Hamas<\/a> poses beyond Israel. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about the families, it\u2019s about a two-and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trafficked-how-joe-bidens-open-border-policies-have-fueled-americas-fentanyl-epidemic\/\" title=\"Trafficked: How Joe Biden\u2019s Open Border Policies Have Fueled America\u2019s Fentanyl Epidemic\">-a-half-year-<\/a>old son who already lost his mother and is waiting for his father to be back. It\u2019s about everyone in Israel who wants to see them back alive,\u201d Michael Levy, Levy\u2019s older brother, told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Merav Leshem Gonen, 23-year-old Romi Gonen\u2019s mother, warned that Hamas is not only a threat to Israel, but to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/Europe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Europe<\/a> and the United States and said, \u201cThe way we learned, [with] my daughter\u2019s life which is in danger now because she\u2019s in the hands of Hamas, the whole world will learn itself by the same wave if they will not take action\u201d against the terrorist organization.<\/p>\n<p>She said, \u201cThe only thing that is relevant is how the world wants to look at itself, if it\u2019s been on the right side of the story or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former hostage Aviva Seigel will join Merav Leshem Gonen and Michael Levy alongside other family members of hostages at the event which will begin with a march at the Washington Monument at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time and continue with a rally at the Lincoln Memorial at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.<\/p>\n<h2>A mile in their shoes<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to be in our shoes, it\u2019s impossible to understand what it means that the mother doesn\u2019t know even [what] her daughter looks like. After half a year, I have no idea [what] she looks like,\u201d Merav Leshem Gonen told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can pick up your phone and take a photo of yourself and send it to your mom, and she can smile at it or see you\u2019re really sad. I have no idea [what] my daughter looks like. I have no idea if she still has her hand,\u201d she continued, explaining that Romi was shot in her right hand during the ambush.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no idea if she eats, if somebody touched her. If she\u2019s [one of] the girls that will come back pregnant. And this is the feeling that I wake up in the morning [and feel] each day,\u201d Merav Leshem Gonen said. \u201cBut I\u2019m focused on bringing back my daughter because this is justice. And I expect the world to act the same. Make justice and bring back all the hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Stopping Hamas\u2019s \u2018crimes against humanity\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Levy said that \u201cno one is doing enough\u201d to bring the hostages home. \u201cThe fact that they are not here now means that all of us are not doing enough. Not us, not the media, not the Israeli government, the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>government<\/a>, and not all the governments in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrently, 133 hostages are being held in inhumane conditions \u2026 Crimes against humanity, that\u2019s what Hamas is committing now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd people talk about a ceasefire without the release of hostages. That\u2019s not something we should even discuss. We need to discuss the release of the hostages, and then we can discuss everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the time for all the governments to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/xi-on-taiwan-reunification-those-who-betray-their-motherland-will-come-to-no-good-end\/\" title=\"Xi On Taiwan \u2018Reunification\u2019: Those \u2018Who Betray Their Motherland\u2019 \u2018Will Come To No Good End\u2019\">join hands<\/a>,\u201d Merav Leshem Gonen said. \u201cThe free world, if it wants to stay free, should join hands instead of fighting each other to come together and fight against the real enemy, and make sure first that the hostages are coming back and then we can stop the war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe families of the hostages are unified by the fundamental goal that Hamas must release the hostages immediately, which they will convey forcefully to the world at the rally to mark six months of captivity,\u201d Bar Ben Yaakov, who organized the rally, told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey undoubtedly reflect a diverse spectrum of political opinions on both American and Israeli <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/politics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>politics<\/a>, and they have all actively campaigned for the relevant stakeholders to \u2018Do the Deal\u2019 immediately and to ensure that any ceasefire deal begins with the hostage release,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are here to support all of the hostage families to ensure the release of all hostages however we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Hostages under \u2018inhumane conditions\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Explaining the importance of bringing home the hostages, Levy said they were living under \u201cinhumane conditions\u201d in captivity. He said, \u201cWe know that [the hostages] barely eat, they live in horrible conditions without air, without water, sleeping on the dirty, dirty floor, and they do not shower them. They barely have time to go to the bathroom, and if they do, it\u2019s usually with one of the terrorists looking at them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merav Leshem Gonen highlighted the rampant sexual violence and rape that has been inflicted on the hostages, and numerous victims of the Oct. 7 attack. <\/p>\n<p>She shared a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1202.org.il\/images\/arcci_report_-_seuxal_crimes_in_october_7_updated_26.3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>report<\/a> by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel which detailed the gruesome ways Hamas used sexual violence to torture and kill Israelis on Oct. 7, and to abuse hostages in the six months since. The United Nations additionally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/defense\/2902048\/un-convincing-evidence-hamas-committed-sexual-violence-hostages\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>found<\/a> \u201cclear and convincing\u201d evidence that hostages have been raped and sexually abused in Hamas captivity.<\/p>\n<h2>Romi Gonen \u2018a sunlight\u2019 and Or Levy \u2018annoyingly genius\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Merav Leshem Gonen described Romi Gonen as \u201ca sunlight\u201d who is brave, authentic, strong, and \u201cknows how to find the good in people.\u201d She said Romi Gonen is \u201cvery smiley and funny and she doesn\u2019t care a lot about what people think about her because she\u2019s okay with her being clumsy and a little bit funny for her friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s young, she\u2019s beautiful from the inside, and outside, she\u2019s the kind of girl you want to have as a close friend,\u201d Merav Leshem Gonen said. \u201cShe\u2019s the one that organizes all the birthday parties for her friends to make them happy, she\u2019s the one to come to people to see when they are having a bad day and need a little support or someone to listen to them or need a hug.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merav Leshem Gonen told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> that Romi Gonen would dance every week with her elder sister and that she had just moved to Tel Aviv working as a waitress, and is loved by her customers.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Levy described his brother as \u201cannoyingly genius,\u201d saying he is \u201cthe kind of guy that everything went smoothly and easily for him when the rest of us had to fight for things \u2026 ever since I remember him, he used to tear things apart and put them back together. He taught himself to program and he\u2019s now a very successful computer engineer at a big startup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe met his soulmate [Eynav] 15 years ago,\u201d Levy said. He shared that Or Levy was \u201calways smiling, always positive,\u201d that he loves music festivals, traveling, and that he \u201cloves his family more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eynav was killed in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the most difficult thing for me, knowing that he lost Eynav. And the fact that he\u2019s there and thinks about Eynav, and what she\u2019s been through. That\u2019s the toughest thing for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h2>Hamas sympathizers on U.S. campuses \u2018lack empathy\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Michael Levy and Gonen additionally responded to Hamas <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/olilondontv\/status\/1776431572507349410?s=46&#038;t=aOOy8YEKiQSfdQpJkUhBhQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>sympathizers<\/a> on U.S. campuses, especially those who call the Oct. 7 ambush an act of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2898157\/california-k-12-antisemitism-prompts-pro-bono-legal-helpline-kill-the-jews\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>resistance<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, I think those people \u2026 lack empathy, but more than everything, they are ignorant,\u201d Michael Levy said. \u201cThey don\u2019t understand what they\u2019re cheering for. Those same terrorists will kill them in a second. Hamas didn\u2019t just kill Jewish or Israeli people, they killed Arabs, and Christians, and Hindus and everyone that they saw. The innocent kids, elderly people, women, babies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just want to tell them that if they won\u2019t take a stand now, it will come back and haunt them as well. It will happen again everywhere if they won\u2019t take a stand against Hamas now,\u201d Michael Levy warned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think they lack the [ability] to understand what happened,\u201d Merav Leshem Gonen said. She explained that the issue is \u201ceven more difficult than ignorance\u201d because people see the affected families and notice \u201cwe look very much like them; like the professor, like the student.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said \u201cthey cannot grasp\u201d that this can happen to a strong country like Israel, and that western values and ways of thinking are not shared by Hamas. \u201cHamas is not western, Hamas is Islamic\u201d and \u201cwants to demolish everything and turn it into an Islamic world,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Merav Leshem Gonen said that Israelis and Palestinians \u201chave the same enemy\u201d in Hamas. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that Israel suffers from Hamas, it\u2019s also the Palestinians themselves,\u201d she told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>, and said that anyone sympathizing with Hamas is \u201csupporting the continuous suffering of the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/stories.bringthemhomenow.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Hostages and Missing Families Forum<\/a> will co-host Sunday\u2019s event alongside leading Jewish organizations, where participants will march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool for a rally demanding the immediate release of all hostages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want people to think about Merav, to think about Almog, [Or\u2019s] two-and-a-half-year-old son who starts to forget his father,\u201d Michael Levy said. \u201cThink about the two-and-a-half-year-old boy who hasn\u2019t been hugged by his parents for six months. That\u2019s something that I cannot even start to describe how difficult it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six months after Hamas&#8217;s attack on Israel, families of hostages from the Oct 7. incident await their return. Over 1,200 fatalities and 240 hostages occurred, with 133 still captive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2670,"featured_media":2214953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24096393390471-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2214952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24096393390471-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2214952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2214953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2214952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2214952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2214952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}