Israel hostage relatives relive trauma at site of rave attack
Among the festival-goers killed were Haodya and Tair – 27 and 23 years old – nieces of Asaf Pozniak, one of the founders of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Pozniak, 30, said he accepted his nieces could never come back, but there were “always lives that can be saved”.
“We must do everything we can to keep up the pressure on the international community and the Israeli government to bring them home now,” he said.
Michael Levi has taken Pozniak at his word and now devotes his waking hours to meeting politicians and diplomats in a bid to get the remaining hostages freed.
Levi’s brother Or, 33, is among those held captive.
Surrounded by eucalyptus trees with the constant hum of drones and helicopters overhead, Levi admitted the visit to Reim had been harder than he had expected.
“Just standing here I feel different,” he said. “Absorbing the atmosphere, seeing what happened here, seeing the bullets on the ground.”
But no matter how devastating the trauma of the past three months, he still hopes he and his brother will one day be reunited.
“We both love basketball, we went to games together,” he said. “That’s one of the things we will do when he’s back.”
Source: CNA