9, Islamic Jihad released a new video on Telegram of Hana and another hostage from Gaza, with the message that they would both be released for humanitarian reasons. Aside from the video by Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group in Gaza, of her mother's violent abduction posted on the group's Telegram account, there was no information about Hana's condition or location, or Elad's. 7 and her mother was taken hostage and released in November.īurying her father was a small shard of certainty among a much larger mosaic of harrowing misinformation. Tamir Kalifa for NPR Carmit Palty Katzir holds a photo of her parents Rami and Hana Katzir with one of her children, at her home in Haifa, Israel, Feb. "Everything," she says, "felt like walking in a crime scene." On the day of her father's funeral, she could not bear to walk around the kibbutz. The attention has come against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized international public discourse that often disputes even the basic facts of the events on that day.īut for Katzir, it is too painful now to walk the paths of her childhood home. For now, the destruction remains as a sort of memorial, well trodden by the army, media, and even foreign tourists and social media influencers looking to bear witness to the aftermath of Oct. Only a few residents have chosen to return. Many of the homes stand charred, half destroyed, piles of rubble everywhere. "At that time, my mom was in Gaza and my brother also," she says, "so it was very obvious for us that my dad would want to be buried in the kibbutz." The decision to bury their father on the kibbutz, then a closed military zone, rather than in a safer temporary option, was one that Katzir, 44, and her sister had to make alone. Her father's funeral was held at the end of October. The quiet is periodically disrupted by the sounds of war planes flying overhead. "I feel guilty all the time, but one of the things I feel guilty about is that we almost didn't have time to grieve, to mourn my dad," says Katzir from her home in the seasonally green mountains near Haifa in northern Israel. They particularly feel guilty over the inability to dedicate time and grief to each individual loss within what they describe as the purgatory of fighting to release the hostages and caring for those previously released. 7 is a blend of abandonment, anger, sadness, grief - and often, guilt. Survivors and families of victims and hostages say the mix of emotions they have felt since Oct. Her mother and brother were taken hostage. 7 Hamas-led attacks, Katzir's father, Rami, was killed at Kibbutz Nir Oz. Tamir Kalifa for NPR Carmit Palty Katzir in her home in Haifa, Israel, Feb. Among them, 27 are believed to be alive, including Elad Katzir. The agricultural community of 400 saw nearly a quarter of its residents killed or kidnapped - 50 killed, 77 kidnapped, with 37 remaining in captivity today. Kibbutz Nir Oz was one of the hardest hit places in Israel on Oct. She says she has had no opportunity to grieve the loss of her father, minimal support from the government, and she fears time is running out to bring her brother back alive. Since then, like many other relatives of people currently held hostage by Hamas, Katzir has been fighting for her brother's life. She and her sister Avital, 51, were spared, having chosen not to spend that holiday weekend with their parents in their childhood home. They killed her father Rami, 79, and took her mother Hana, 77, and her older brother Elad, 47, into Gaza as hostages. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed.Ĭarmit Palty Katzir's family was shattered that day, when Hamas-led militants attacked her childhood home of Nir Oz, near the Gaza border. These are the families of the 134 people still being held hostage in Gaza. TEL AVIV, Israel - On a Saturday night in February, in a rally at a plaza now known as Hostage Square, families line up, preparing to take the stage one by one, holding placards bearing pictures of their loved ones and wearing shirts with a message that's been plastered all over this city since October: "Bring them home now."
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