Six women who were kidnapped to Gaza in October and were released during the November ceasefire deal with Hamas held a press conference on Wednesday in a plea to the Israeli government to return the hostages.
Sharon Aloni-Kunyo, 34, from kibbutz Nir Oz, who was released with her two three-year-old daughters, Yuli and Emma, from captivity, is still waiting for her husband, David, to return.
She said, “136 hostages are waiting without oxygen, food, or hope to be saved,” adding, “The price is high, but abandoning the hostages is a historical stain.”
Nili Margalit, 41, from Nir Oz, the nurse who spent her time in captivity aiding fellow hostages, said, “If they don’t return home, everyone will know that they live in a country that is not committed to their security; that solidarity is dead.
“If the hostages do not return, every Israeli is next in line,” she continued.
‘Complete victory’ – only after hostages return
Avival Siegel, 62, who was abducted from Kfar Aza along with her husband, Keith, who is still in captivity, said, “If we save them, we will save the State of Israel, and this will be a complete victory.”
Adina Moshe, 72, from Nir Oz, the first Israeli hostage to be identified for release in the ceasefire deal with Hamas, addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said: “Everything is in your hands”
“If you continue in this line of destroying Hamas, there will be no hostages left to save. Also among the young ones. There are those who need medication; I know them, and I educated them. We guarded the borders all those years. We didn’t leave when we were bombed. We never left. We always stayed. We love the country; they won’t take that away from me.”
She further stated, “I want my country back; the moral of my country is no more.”
Sahar Kalderon, 16, from Nir Oz, said, “I’ll do everything for my father to come home,” adding, “One hour there is hell. My soul was murdered. Everyone there is anew murdered every day.
“I had to be quiet and wait for someone to take me out of his nightmare.
“The only thing I asked was where is my government. But what about my father?”
Gadi Zieg and Reuters contributed to this article.
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