New Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer MP met relatives of October 7 hostages in Parliament yesterday.

At the event, organised by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), Falconer said that the UK was working to help secure a deal to get the hostages held by Hamas released.

Thirty Labour MPs were also in attendance. They heard from Merav Dilal Gilboa and Ilan Dilal, whose 23-year-old son was abducted by Hamas from the Nova festival.

Yair Keshet, Yarden Bibas’s uncle, also spoke to the assembled parliamentarians. 

Shiri Bibas and sons Ariel and Kfir, taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz d

Yarden’s  family, one-year-old baby Kfir, four-year-old son Ariel and wife Shiri were taken by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.

In January this year, Yarden was told by Hamas that his wife and two children had been killed (something which has not been confirmed) and advised to blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the refusal to return their bodies in a video released by the terrorist organisation.

Herut Nimrodi, mother of 19-year-old soldier Tamir who was kidnapped from the Erez border crossing and taken to Gaza, shared her son’s story with MPs. His unit (COGAT) helped take aid into the Gaza Strip.
The family of Tal Haimi, the 41-year-old died protecting Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak as part of the first responders emergency team, also told his story. His body is being held in Gaza.

Haimi’s partner Ella, who was five months’ pregnant on October 7, was accompanied by her young son Lotan – who will never meet his father – and Tal’s cousin Or-Tal.

LFI’s director Michael Rubin told the JC: “It was so important for us to use our first parliamentary event of the new session to focus on the plight of the Israeli hostages taken on October 7. For MPs to hear the heartbreaking stories directly from family members whose loved ones are still cruelly held by Hamas was incredibly powerful. I know they will be committed to working with the government to do everything we can to bring all the hostages home.”

Solicitor General and MP for Finchley and Golders Green, Sarah Sackman, who attended the event, posted on X/Twitter that it was “deeply moving to listen to the families of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. I am in awe of their strength and resilience in the face of such unimaginable anguish. We need a ceasefire and a hostage deal to Bring Them Home Now”.

Labour MP for Washington and Gateshead South Sharon Hodgson said it was “Incredibly moving to hear today from the families of 9 of the Israeli hostages” and that it was “great to see so many Labour MPs in the room.”

New MP for High Peak Jon Pearce said: “To hear first hand their stories and to witness their unshakeable resolve will stay with me forever.

“We need a ceasefire and a deal to Bring Them Home now to their families."