‘On this terrible anniversary, we must keep focused on the goal: get all hostages back’

The last proof that Gadi remains alive was a video published by Islamic Jihad in December that revealed the grandfather to be gaunt and unwell.

“The problem is we have no information about him,” Moses said. “Since [the video] we have nothing. No hostages saw him, no one knew about anyone who had been with him. We just keep the belief he is kept in some decent conditions that he can survive with.

“But we don’t know anything. Don’t know if he gets his medicines. Don’t know anything about him. We just have to hope, as he is a very positive man, he managed to find some conversation with his captors that allowed him to have some decent living conditions.”

Twelve months after the Hamas terror attack that saw 251 Israelis and foreigners abducted to Gaza, 97 hostages remain unaccounted for. Israeli authorities believe that around a third of them are now dead.

The single largest group of those returned were released during a temporary ceasefire in November, when 105 captives were swapped for Palestinian prisoners. Of the 49 others, some have been found dead, some killed by the IDF and others rescued, including Noa Argamani whose face had become emblematic of the detainees’ plight.

The recent discovery of the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel under Rafah sparked horror among those hoping their captured relatives might still return home, however. They had been killed, the IDF said, just hours before Israeli forces reached them.

“It is impossible to put into words what the hostages have endured in Hamas captivity since October 7, now 331 days, and what their families have been going through,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an army spokesman, said at the time. “This morning, this news shakes us all.”

Writing for the JC, Nivi Feldman, the co-lead of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum UK, said the Jewish community had been left “heartbroken” by their deaths.

“No one imagined 11 months ago that this horror would continue for so long,” she wrote. “The world seems upside down, with good being perceived as evil and evil as good. How is it that on the day when six of our people were discovered after being tortured and executed, we are the ones perceived as the aggressors?”

In Israel, the news sparked the largest protests since October 7. Speaking during one, freed hostage Aviva Siegel said that she feared her husband, Keith Siegel, would die in Gaza if Benjamin Netanyahu failed to agree a ceasefire deal.

“I do not even want to think about Keith there, holding himself alive, and doing everything that he can to come back to us,” she said.

Describing her fear for those still alive in captivity, Siegel added: “I know what they’re going through, I was there. And I wanted to die there so many times. Losing myself, just hoping that one of the killers would just kill me…

“I don’t think anybody in the world would want to be in a place like where they are. Fourteen metres underground, not knowing if they’re going to live and see their families, ever again.

“The [kidnapped Israeli] girls and Keith are lying on a mattress and they’re trying to figure out if they’re going to be the next one to be raped, or hit, or tortured, or starved. The world needs to wake up for everybody.”

Speaking at the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six hostages murdered by Hamas in August, his father, Jon Polin, said: “Hersh, we failed you, we all failed you.”

His shirt torn in accordance with Jewish mourning tradition, he also wore a sticker reading 332 to represent the number of days the hostages had then been in Gaza.

With America’s Biden administration having essentially halted ceasefire negotiations and Hezbollah trying to pick up where Hamas left off, the chance of a hostage release deal before presidential elections in November looks remote.

As as often been the case since October 7, the responsibility to keep hostages on the political agenda has fallen to the families of those held in Gaza.

At the Labour Party’s annual conference last weekend, they moved attendees to tears when they described their plight.

Sharone Lifschitz said her elderly father Oded, who remains in Gaza, followed British politics and would have liked to discuss Sir Keir Starmer’s speech with her.

But, she said, “I can’t share it with my father. He’s somewhere in Gaza. That morning, when my father woke up after being shot in the hand… He woke up to see his life’s work on fire. His house was on fire. The children of his community were being taken hostage by military and citizens from Gaza.”

Noam Safir, whose grandfather Shlomo Mansour was seized from Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel, said he had experienced a “second Holocaust” on October 7.

“Don’t forget my grandpa and the other 100 hostages still in captivity, do everything in your power, do everything you can to advance a deal,” she told MPs. “Pressure whoever you can. Use any connection you have. A deal is the only chance we have to get them all back.”

Reflecting on the year-long campaign to compel the Israeli government to negotiate a ceasefire and bring the hostages home, Yair Moses said he hoped a breakthrough would come soon.

“This is what we tried to do for maybe 11 months. We said for all the other goals it doesn’t matter. If you really believe that we should erase all of Gaza and everything – I don’t – but even if you believe that, bringing the people back is more urgent than any other goal.

“This must be goal number one of everyone in Israel to bring our people back. To cherish life. This is a value we all grew up with. Judaism talks about life. Life is the most important thing. It’s more important than Shabbat and Yom Kippur, so it’s for sure more important than land and everything else. We know so many people who arrived in Gaza alive and who are not alive any more. Some of them have been returned, some are still there. We need everyone to be back. All the living to come back home and all the dead people to be buried properly in Israel.”