Iran One year held hostage - relatives fear for kidnap victims

The streets in the Israeli coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv are emptier than usual on this day. Passengers are making themselves scarce, especially on public transport. There are fears that not only rockets could be aimed at the city, but also that suicide bombers could blow themselves up on buses - as they did some time ago.

It is the anniversary of the terrorist attack on southern Israel. On 7 October last year, gunmen from the Islamist Hamas and other organizations from the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented massacre in southern Israel. They killed around 1,200 people and abducted another 250 as hostages in the sealed-off coastal area. Around 100 hostages are still being held by their kidnappers.

Many relatives of the abductees organized themselves in the Forum of Hostage Families right at the beginning. They took over the square in front of the Tel Aviv Art Museum, which is now called "Hostage Square". It is a public space in which the fate of the hostages is permanently highlighted with installations, exhibitions and demonstrations. With the Gaza war against Hamas, which was triggered by the massacre, and the war against the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon that has now openly broken out, efforts to secure their release have fallen behind.

Depressed mood on the "Square of the Hostages"

The mood among visitors to Hostage Square on this sultry, sunny fall day is subdued. A digital display board shows how long the hostages have been in the Gaza Strip: 366 days. Michal Mayo is the cousin of Doron Steinbrecher, one of the 100 or so people still kidnapped. Mayo, who is around 30 years old, wears glasses and has red-blonde curls, and she looks exhausted as she speaks. "Doron was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza," she says. "She was so brave. During her abduction, she wrote WhatsApp messages - 'They have me! They have me!" - so we found out that she had been kidnapped."

Sometime in January, she continues, Hamas released a propaganda video showing their 30-year-old kidnap victim on her 107th day of martyrdom. "She looked terrible," says Mayo. "You could see that she was suffering, that she was emaciated, that her skin looked unhealthy. Since then, there has been no sign of life from her." Steinbrecher has suffered from a chronic illness since birth and requires daily medication, which she is certainly not receiving in hostage detention. "Time is running out." Every time it becomes known that someone else has been murdered in Hamas captivity is a blow for her and the other hostages, Mayo emphasizes. They all want to get their loved ones back alive.

Expansion of the war

Israel is marking the anniversary of the Hamas massacre on this day. The country has changed fundamentally since then. The Israeli army is relentlessly pressing ahead with the destruction of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Criticism of the many civilian casualties among the Palestinians bounces off most Israelis. At the same time, the Hamas attack was also a huge shock that deprived Jewish Israelis of their sense of security. With Hezbollah in Lebanon, another militia allied with Iran intervened in the fighting. Israel is now endeavoring to eliminate the threat posed by Hezbollah once and for all. Iran itself, which has set itself the goal of destroying Israel, is on the brink of war with its arch-enemy.

The fate of the hostages threatens to take a back seat. The government hopes to free them by completely destroying Hamas. It is doubtful that this will succeed. The focus is on the military confrontation with the arch-enemies of the Jewish state, the Iran-led "Axis of Resistance", which includes Hamas and Hezbollah. On the morning of this anniversary, President Izchak Herzog took part in the commemoration in the forest of Reim, where the Islamists killed, raped and kidnapped the unsuspecting visitors to a music festival on October 7.

On this occasion, Herzog emphasized his country's war efforts. Israel is fighting a "battle for the free world", he said, alluding to autocratic Iran. His message is that the world should support Israel in its fight against its enemies in order to bring "peace and a better future" to the region.

SDA