As hundreds of families watch and wait for any glimpse of information about their loved ones who have gone missing since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, anguish has set in for many.
But so has hope.
Omri Shtivi—whose brother, Idan Shtivi, has been missing since that fateful day after volunteering to photograph the Nova festival—told The Daily Beast that although his family has been tormented as they wait for information on whether Idan is dead or alive in captivity, they are trying to be positive.
“We are feeling very, very sad, very depressed from the situation, and with a lot of hope that we will hear something from him,” Omri said. “We are waiting for you. We have a lot of hope and of course we’re thinking about all the scenarios that can be happening there.”
The heartache that has set in for families and loved ones waiting to find out the fate of their loved ones coincides with a dearth of information from governments scrambling to find any information about hostages—and any way to bring them home safe.
Israeli and U.S. officials have admitted in recent days that they don’t have a clear idea of how many hostages there are, where they are, or in what condition they are being held—a position that puts Washington and allies on the backfoot in trying to save them.
Omri and his family have been in touch with the police and the military to try to locate Idan, he said. But so far, the search has yielded more questions.
“They took the information they needed to find him. And there are a lot of body bodies that they’re trying to discover,” Omri Shtivi said, adding that in the meantime, families of those unaccounted for have banded together, working on Telegram and other social media channels to communicate and share information about the last known details of their missing loved ones.
Idan Shtivi
Courtesy of family
The Israeli government has established an office meant to work with families of hostages on the path forward, even as the next steps remain unclear. The Kidnapped and Missing Persons Task Force office, headed up by Brig. Gen. Gal Hirsch, who previously commanded the 91st division responsible for Israel’s northern border and who has held positions in anti-terror and paratroopers units, has been in touch with families with those suspected to be taken hostage, an Israeli official told The Daily Beast.
Omri and his family have been in touch with Hirsch and his team in order to try to obtain information about Idan’s whereabouts. But he said they have heard next to nil.
“We didn’t get any information from him,” Omri said.
Some families are starting to hear news from Hamas itself about the fate of their loved ones. Hamas released a video of one of its hostages, Mia Shem, 21, on Monday, claiming that it is taking good care of her by providing her medical attention. It’s not clear when the footage was taken or if it’s authentic.
Keren Shem, Mia’s mother, begged the international community to work to bring her daughter home.
“I didn’t know if she’s dead or alive until yesterday, all I knew is she might be kidnapped,” Keren Shem said Tuesday. “Yesterday I saw my baby on television. I saw she’s alive… I can see she was shot in the shoulder.”
And while the video might offer a sliver of hope for families, the fact that Hamas is publishing footage of hostages and hinting at possible deals is actually quite cruel, said one Israeli official, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.
The release shows “that they’re applying a lot of pressure, psychological, political pressure on the families to start a process of negotiation,” the Israeli official told The Daily Beast, declining to divulge any information on possible negotiations.
“He was my everything.”
The White House National Security Council did not return a request for comment on the authenticity of the video or what it means.
Even as news trickles out from Hamas’ social media postings, many families are dealing with the devastating reality that their loved ones who worked to escape the terror perished in the process.
When Ori Siegler and his friend, Mor Cohen, tried escaping Hamas on Saturday, dodging bullets while driving out of the festival, Cohen succumbed to a gunshot wound in the head, Siegler told The Daily Beast. They had been driving away, making U-turns, and dodging cars filled with gunmen, when he realized his friend was not going to make it, Siegler recounted.
Mor Cohen, right, with a friend
Courtesy of Ori Siegler
“While I was squeezing the engine, my friend just tells me, oh my god, I’m bleeding a lot. Looking at him and I see a hole in the middle of his head,” Siegler said. “’Holy shit. No, way, no way, no way,’” Ori said he remembers thinking.
Siegler said he then tried to press the wound to help him stay alive. “I tried to keep him with me,” he said. “But I couldn’t.”
“He was my everything,” Siegler said. “All that’s going into my head is, ‘how the hell am I going to keep going right now?’”
“A struggle”
For many families waiting to hear back about their missing loved ones, though, some hope may remain. Israeli authorities said Monday they have been in touch with the families of 199 hostages.
But—as has often been the case with information about the hostages and people who vanished on October 7—that’s not necessarily the final number, in part because identifying who is already dead, and who is a hostage, has been a difficult process, the Israeli official told The Daily Beast.
“No, it’s not the final number,” the official said. “There is still more than a few bodies that have not been identified yet. They’re within Israel, but because the bodies are so damaged, it’s been a struggle.”
Hamas acknowledged Monday in a video release that there may be 250 or more hostages inside Gaza right now, according to an MSNBC interpretation and translation of the video.
American officials have acknowledged in recent days that the U.S government doesn’t know just how many hostages there are, but that there is a “very small” number of America hostages. Last week, the National Security Council said there were 14 Americans unaccounted for.
Hamas has also claimed that some hostages have been killed while Israel launched strikes inside Gaza. It’s not clear if the claim is true.
The seemingly immense gap of intelligence about the hostages comes as Hamas has begun releasing hints that it might be interested in a negotiation of some kind. While Hamas has said it wants to exchange hostages in exchange for Hamas members held prisoner in Israel, Hamas released another video Monday stating that Hamas could release hostages when “field conditions are right.”
“There is no way right now to have a negotiation.”
In what Hamas called an “important speech,” Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida claimed the group might be willing to release some non-Israeli hostages. The spokesperson in the video appeared to differentiate between hostages who are foreigners—and who it said were not necessarily party to the conflict—and those who are Israeli, according to an MSNBC interpretation of the video.
U.S. officials have successfully brokered deals around the world for citizens wrongfully detained or held hostage. But the current predicament—with hundreds of hostages held in Gaza, dispersed in a densely populated area, all while Israel bombards the narrow territory—is far more complicated than previous efforts, former hostage negotiators tell The Daily Beast. The fact that dozens of countries have citizens suspected to be held hostage complicates potential paths forward as well.
The Israeli Defense Forces claimed Tuesday to have killed Osama Mazini, who Israel says was responsible for Hamas prisoners.
Indications have come from Israeli officials that negotiations may not be on the table for some time. Families of hostages grew upset in recent days when Israeli National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi has said that the Israeli government will not negotiate with Hamas. “There is no way right now to have a negotiation,” he said Saturday, admitting that Israel “did not fulfill its mission” in keeping citizens safe from terrorists.
As of Saturday, there were not active negotiations with the terrorist organization, he said.
The U.S. government has begun work with partners in the region on locating hostages, reaching out to any contacts that may be able to help bring the hostages home safely, a State Department official previously told The Daily Beast.
High stakes
The apparent pressure campaign from Hamas comes just as President Joe Biden plans to visit Israel Wednesday in a show of support as fears grow that the Israel-Hamas war could explode into a broader conflict in the region.
A key part of the Middle East trip, however, has already been axed. Jordan cancelled a planned summit between Biden and Palestinian, Egyptian, and Jordanian leaders on Tuesday, hours after a devastating blast at a Gaza hospital killed more than 500 Palestinians, according to healthy ministry reports.
The presidential visit to Israel, however, was still on as of Sunday, and will coincide with U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s whirlwind tour to seven nations in the last several days, including two trips to Israel and a trip to Qatar, which is helping the United States and Israel work on charting out possible hostage negotiations.
The travel reflects the mounting pressure on the Biden administration and allies to work complex levers of power and diplomacy as Israel vows to eliminate Hamas in the coming days, and as Washington works to deter enemies from expanding the conflict.
Iran, which has been supporting Hamas for years, has been warning of regional escalation if Israel’s attacks in Gaza continue. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Tuesday in a speech blamed the United States for the current tensions and threatened retaliation as well.
Already, the flurry of attention from Washington may be shifting the gears behind the scenes. Israel had been planning a ground invasion into Gaza, but the growing swell of diplomacy in the region might mean that is delayed, CBS News reported. Walla, a news site in Israel, reported a ground invasion into Gaza will be delayed, likely until after Biden’s visit.
Biden’s trip will send a signal to aggressors in the region that escalating clashes with Israel—and expanding the war—is a fool’s errand, the Israeli official said.
Biden’s trip is “a strong message to countries around us that… the United States has Israel’s back—for security but also for deterrence,” the Israeli official said.
