In Or’s last commuincation to his mother at 7:39 am, he said “You don’t want to know what is going on here.”
Michael told the JC: “30 minutes after, a group of terrorists arrived and they started throwing grenades and sprayed this tiny bomb shelter with bullets, Eynav was murdered in front of him. He had to watch it.”
Or survived the attack and Hamas terrorists then took him to Gaza in a video they posted to social media: “They just took dragged him outside. He begged them not to, I saw a video of him inside the bomb shelter after one of the terrorists decided it's something worth recording. Since then, we are trying to do everything to bring him back.”
Michael and Or’s other brother have been taking care of Almog, Eynav and Or’s young son, who turned three during the near 12 months that his father has been held by Hamas.
Michael described the challenge of having to explain these inconceivable horrors and their consequences to someone so young: “First, he asked, on a daily basis: ‘Where's Mother? Where's Mommy? Where's Daddy? Why can't we go back home?’
"And after discussions with psychologists, they told us that we have to tell him that his mom won't come back and that we are looking for his father and good people are helping us.”
“I wanted to believe he doesn't really understand, but it feels like he does,” he said.
Even simple things like a family day out to the beach can bring back a flood of memories for the young child: “Or and Eynav used to take him to the beach all the time. He was two or younger when they did, and we weren’t sure he remembered anything. And when they [Almog and Michael’s other brother] got to the beach, he all of a sudden asked: ‘Is Daddy really coming back?’”
He added, “It's good and bad, because I want him to remember them, but I don't want him to have trauma because they are not there.”
Another unimaginable challenge for Michael and his brother is what to do when Almog confuses them for his own father. “The psychologist told us that we have to correct him, but not very aggressively. ‘I'm Uncle. We're looking for Daddy’, but not to make a too big a big deal out of it, because he might think it's a game.”
He continued: “It's not easy, as you can imagine. You know, you just have to absorb, not to show him that you care too much about it.”
Another hostage, Tsachi Idan, 49, had to witness Hamas killing his 18-year-old daughter Maayan, before being taken by the terrorist group to Gaza from his home in kibbutz Nahal Oz.
Adam Maanit, Tsachi’s cousin, told the JC: "The message I gave to the Lib Dem MPs that came to hear my family's story, is to raise the issue of the hostages like that of my cousin Tsachi Idan at every opportunity, be that in Parliament, in the media or in their meetings with international partners, diplomats and governments.
“The plight of the hostages is not only vital to raise on purely humanitarian grounds, but it is also the best, swiftest and only way to bring about any potential ceasefire. I believe this message resonated with many of the Liberal Democrat MPs, peers, councillors and party members that came to hear about our families' plight, and I hope they will take this message far and wide and let it guide their future actions."
On Sunday night, they spoke to a packed-out meeting organised by Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel (LDFI) whose honorary chair, Gavin Stollar OBE, told the JC: “Last night the Liberal Democrat Party embraced the three hostage families recognising the humanitarian plight of their relatives.
"Our former leader Tim Farron MP led the way, stating that supporting the return of the hostages needs ‘no caveat, no qualification and no apology, we need to bring them home now’. This received a rousing ovation and is symptomatic of how we as a party feel.”
Their activities in raising awareness weren’t limited to just the conference venue and held a vigil in the town earlier that evening also attended by leaders of Progressive Judiasm.
Sharone Lifshitz told the assembled crowd about her 84-year-old father Oded, who was kidnapped from his home in kibbutz Nir Oz along with her mother Yocheved, who was released in the November temporary ceasefire deal.
Sharone paid tribute to murdered teenager Noya Dan who was the child of her best friend Galit; she described her father as a grandfather figure to Noya.
Noya was a huge Harry Potter fan and author JK Rowling posted about her on social media shortly after October 7. It later transpired that she was murdered along with her grandmother Carmela.
[Missing Credit]
Also on Sunday, Lib Dem activists gave a standing ovation to Magen Inon, a London-based Israeli teacher whose parents were killed by Hamas on October 7 and who urged the conference to support Israelis and Palestinians who believe in coexistence.
