No Child Should Be A Bargaining Chip Of War: Mothers Of Children Taken Hostage By Hamas Speak Out
“One in four of our community is either dead, missing or kidnapped."
Hadas Kalderon’s son, Erez, 12, with Sahar.
Photograph: courtesy of Hadas Kalderon
“The last call I got was from my youngest. I could hear the terrorists walking in. He was whispering: ‘They’re coming in, they’re coming in.”
By Simon Hattenstone
The Guardian (11/9/23)
“We’re here as mothers, not as politicians,” the three women say. They are not just any mothers – all three had children kidnapped from their kibbutz a month ago and taken hostage in Gaza. They look drained. Renana Jacob, Hadas Kalderon and B’atSheva Yahalomi are briefly in Britain, fighting for their children’s lives – and the lives of all children caught up in the Israel-Hamas war. They are meeting diplomats (they have just met Qatar’s ambassador to the UK, who is trying to negotiate their release) and telling their story to whomever will listen. It doesn’t get any easier with each retelling. If anything, it seems to get tougher.
The three women live on the Nir Oz kibbutz in the south of Israel. Jacob and Kalderon grew up there together. Like many kibbutzniks from earlier generations, they were idealists. They believed in collective living and shared values. Perhaps most importantly, they believed in the possibility of peace with their Palestinian neighbours in Gaza.
All three left the kibbutz as young adults and later returned to settle down. “We came back to raise our children there because we thought it was heaven on Earth,” Jacob says. “We were raised together and we wanted to raise our children together.” Sure enough, their children grew up to be friends and enjoy the communal life. They show me photographs and videos of the kids – at birthday parties, on holiday, dancing, joking and grinning. The most poignant photograph shows Jacob’s son Yagel smiling and making the peace sign with his fingers.
Three mothers
Their lives were ruptured on 7 October, the day of the Hamas massacre. “We’re three mothers from the same little village – a communal community that lived a peaceful life and believed in good neighbouring. Out of nowhere, we got this horror terror attack and our little village has gone. There is nothing left. And all we want is our children to be home. And this is why we’re here.”
The mothers’ mission is simple – they want their children brought home and Palestinian children to be provided with a safe place away from the carnage of Gaza. They say that no child should be a bargaining chip in a war.
The first thing that strikes me about them is their dignity and strength – their ability to hold themselves together. But it doesn’t take long to see how broken all three of them are, how close to complete collapse, whether from exhaustion, trauma or despair. There is rarely a moment when one is not in tears.
Everything is a reminder of their children, Jacob says. “When I wake up and the sun still rises, I think: ‘Here’s another morning that they are there and I am here. When I eat, I think: ‘Are they eating?’ When I sleep, I think: ‘Are they sleeping?’ When I shower, I wonder whether they are given showers.”
Jacob says that 7 October was a regular Saturday morning – a day for the kids to sleep in, relax and play. (She works at nearby Holit kibbutz, which was also destroyed on 7 October.) She was out and about, visiting a friend on a nearby kibbutz, when she heard gunshots. She phoned home to make sure everything was OK. It wasn’t.
Her two boys, 16-year-old Or and 12-year-old Yagel, had locked themselves in the safe room in their house to protect themselves from attack. “The last call I got was from my youngest,” she says. “I could hear the terrorists walking in. He was whispering: ‘They’re coming in, they’re coming in,’ and I told him to be quiet. The last thing I heard was him crying, begging them: ‘Please don’t take me. I’m too young. You can’t take me, I’m too young.’ …
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Netanyahu Rejected Ceasefire-For-Hostages Deal In Gaza, Sources Report
By Ruth Michaelson in Istanbul, Julian Borger in London & Emine Sinmaz in Jerusalem
The Guardian (11/9/23)
Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a deal for a five-day ceasefire with Palestinian militant groups in Gaza in return for the release of some of the hostages held in the territory early in the war, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
The sources said the Israeli prime minister rejected the deal outright in negotiations soon after Hamas militants staged an unprecedented incursion into Israeli territory on 7 October, killing an estimated 1,400 people.
Israeli PM said to have turned down proposal in early talks and continues to take tough line.
Negotiations resumed after the launch of the Israeli ground offensive on 27 October, but the same sources said Netanyahu had continued to take a tough line on proposals involving ceasefires of different durations in exchange for a varying number of hostages.
Others indicated that negotiations which took place prior to the ground invasion involved a far larger number of hostages, with Hamas proposing the release of dozens of foreign nationals captive in Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister’s office was asked to comment on the hostage negotiations but had not given a response by Thursday evening. …
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/09/netanyahu-rejected-ceasefire-for-hostages-deal-in-gaza-sources-say
