Relatives and a friend of Israelis kidnapped and killed by Hamas visited Australia\u2019s Parliament House on Tuesday, sharing personal stories in an effort to lobby for international support for all hostages to be freed \u2013 and to support Israel\u2019s war effort. The group of five will meet political leaders during a two-day visit in Canberra. They are also expected to share their experiences with members of the community in Sydney and Melbourne during a weeklong Australian trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur aim first is to get the hostages back, all of them,\u201d Elad Levy, 49, told reporters outside the Parliament House. Levy\u2019s niece, Roni Eshel, was a 19-year-old soldier initially thought kidnapped during Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 incursion into Israel but confirmed dead weeks later. \u201cOur second aim is to get the support of the Australian people and the Australian government \u2026 for Israel\u2019s actions in wiping out Hamas and in our military actions right now to eradicate Hamas,\u201d Levy added.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s major political parties have supported Israel\u2019s right to defend itself but have urged Israel to comply with international law by containing non-combatant casualties in Gaza. Israel has agreed to temporary, humanitarian pauses in its military operations in Gaza in exchange for the gradual release of hostages. The agreement had been due to expire Monday but was extended for an additional two days. Iris Haim, 57, whose son Yotam Haim, 28, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, described \u201cthe process of waiting\u201d as psychological terror\u201d for families.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s psychological terror because they don\u2019t give the names until the last minute. We wait in fear,\u201d Haim said. She said she hoped the cease-fire would hold until all the hostages were released. Mika Shani, 18, said her mother, Tal Shani, called Tuesday morning to say her kidnapped brother Amit Shani, who turned 16 in captivity, was not listed among the hostages to be freed. The boy was the only family member to be snatched by Hamas during an attack on their home in Kibbutz Be\u2019eri. \u201cIt\u2019s been so frustrating. Every day, like, maybe today is the day. Maybe today he\u2019s going to get out,\u201d Mika Shani said.<\/p>\n
Ofir Tamir, 26, said his kidnapped friend, Noa Argamani, who is also 26, had been caring for her mother, Loira Argamani, who suffered incurable brain cancer. \u201cThe mother doesn\u2019t have a lot of time or a lot of strength,\u201d Tamir said. Tali Kizhner\u2019s 22-year-old son, Segev Kizhner, was killed at the same Nova music festival where Argamani was taken. \u201cIt was not a matter of religion, it was not a matter of gender,\u201d Tali Kizhner said. \u201cThey simply came to kill everybody,\u201d the 50-year-old mom added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Relatives and a friend of Israelis kidnapped and killed by Hamas visited Australia\u2019s Parliament House on Tuesday, sharing personal stories\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":14141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[1539,4138,1380,1530,1418,536],"class_list":["post-14140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-australia","tag-families","tag-gaza","tag-hostages","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-palestine"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}