‘I love my son, but I love Israel more’: The hostage families opposing a ceasefire
When Elyakim Libman was born 24 years ago, his parents named him, in line with Jewish tradition, in memory of an uncle shot dead guarding a newly expanded settlement in the West Bank.
On October 7, he was kidnapped from the Nova festival as he tried to take partygoers to safety from the Hamas gunmen roaming the site.
Libman was taken as a hostage into Gaza, the enclave into which one of his uncle’s killers was released in 2011, one of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
“The terrorists, who were caught afterwards and put in jail, were freed in the Shalit deal,” Libman’s sister, Emuna, said. “How do we know that whoever kidnapped Elyakim isn’t the same person who killed my uncle?”
While pressure from hostages’ relatives mounts on Binyamin Netanyahu to strike a new deal with Hamas, the Libmans are one of a handful of families resisting any agreement that would free prisoners they regard as implacable foes.
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Settlers who live in the West Bank city of Hebron, home to notorious religious hardliners like Israel’s security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Libmans have put their faith in a relentless war against Hamas to free their loved ones.
“I wish for all the hostages to come back, but it won’t be worth it if in a month or so they will come and kidnap more people again, and the cycle will go on and on,” said Libman’s other sister, Aviah, 16.
Emuna, 30, agreed. “I was at the cabinet meeting and heard a former hostage say that the scariest thing about being hostage was hearing Israel bombing. But without those bombs, the hostages won’t come back to tell the tale,” she said. “This is the only way. The war in Gaza is what will help bring back the hostages.”
Libman was also working as a security guard when he was taken captive from the Nova rave along with his childhood friend, Eitan Mor, whose family also live in Hebron. Both the Mor and Libman families have found themselves at increasing odds with hostage families demanding an immediate ceasefire. Some 120 hostages remain in Gaza after a previous ceasefire and hostage exchange deal collapsed on December 1.
“Some of the families of hostages are only able to see themselves and what is good for them. They don’t ask what the nation wants, what is important for the nation and what will protect the state,” Eitan’s father, Tzvika Mor, said. “We care what the nation says. Yes, we demand our hostages’ home, but in a way that will bring honour to Israel, and will intensify pressure on Hamas.”
“I’m ready to pay the exact price that every family who sends the frontlines is ready to pay,” he added. “I also love my son very much. But if I have to choose between the love of my son and the love of the nation, I choose the love of the nation. And I am ready to replace my son, I did my part, I raised a family with 8 children. I have been preparing for this all my life.”
Ben-Gvir, has contrasted his Hebron neighbours’s stance with that of the families lobbying for a ceasefire. “Libman is not ready for a deal to release terrorists to free his son, because it is important to him to defeat Hamas and deter our enemies who are plotting to carry out another massacre with more hostages,” he said.
Two different agencies representing hostage families are lobbying for their competing paths. While the main forum campaigns for hostages negotiated release, the other, Tikvah, is doing everything it can to prevent another deal.
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Tikvah’s Dudi Avitan, who runs the agency, points to the fact that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza, was one of those released in the Shalit deal.
“Who is Sinwar? He sat in jail for killing people, and was freed in the Shalit deal. If we didn’t free him, then maybe this whole thing wouldn’t have even happened,” he said.
Tikvah’s hawkish approach is bitterly opposed by those in the mainstream families’ forum who point to their success in bringing around 100 hostages home. “Hamas is not something that threatens the future of Israel, but not releasing the hostages does,” said Daniel Lifshitz, the grandson of the freed hostage Yocheved, 85 and her husband, Oded, who is still in captivity.
“I hope for a deal that is coming. We value life. We need to back that up. That’s the contract between the country and the people.”
The fatal shooting of three hostages by Israeli soldiers has only underlined the threat to the lives of those held captive during what Israel describes as a fight to the death with Hamas.
Two of Libman’s older brothers, Elisha and Elkanan, are themselves fighting as soldiers inside Gaza. At every opportunity they get, they leave messages in its ruins telling their younger brother to keep the faith. “Since the start of the ground operation, his older brothers have been graffitiing messages on the walls of Gaza saying ‘Elyak, we’re on our way,’” said Emuna.
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