The List. Sharon. Liri. Youssef. Hamza....
One week of life lived and lost in Israel
Editor’s Note: This piece takes you through the last week in Israel. We begin on Saturday, January 4, 2025, when Hamas published a video of hostage Liri Albag on Telegram. We follow that thread back in time, to October 7, and throughout the ensuing eight days. To Saturday, January 11. Last night. Where we end.
In eight days, President-elect Trump will be sworn into office. He has repeatedly threatened that if all the hostages in Hamas captivity are not freed by his inauguration that there will be “hell to pay” like no one has seen before. His comments seem to have impelled the parties back to the negotiating table.
This is why there is renewed focus on a deal.
I. Sharon Aloni-Cunio.
When I wrote the last bits of this piece yesterday, I anticipated that Hamas would put out a “teaser” video later in the day. They did. On Telegram. At 5 pm Israel time (seven hours ahead of EST). In the teaser, apparently, an image is shown of Sharon Aloni-Cunio.
On October 7, Sharon was taken hostage by Hamas, along with her three-year-old twin daughters and husband David. His younger brother, Ariel, was abducted with his girlfriend, Arbel Yehoud. Arbel’s brother, Dolev, a married father of four was also kidnapped. (His youngest child was born after October 7.) Sharon’s older sister, Danielle, had been visiting the kibbutz that holiday weekend with her 5-year-old daughter, Emilia. They, too, were taken hostage by Hamas. At some point during the chaos, Ariel Cunio managed to send a text message to his older brother, Eitan (who is also David’s twin). “We are in a horror movie.”
Sharon, Danielle, and their children were released in November 2023. All the others remain in Hamas hell.
Watch here. An interview with Sharon Cunio, who describes the unimaginable ordeal she suffered in the hours leading to the family’s abduction on October 7 and since.
In August, 2024, Silvia Cunio, mother of David and Ariel, confirmed that she had recently received signs of life. She was, of course, overjoyed.
Fast forward to the present. Last Thursday, Sharon Cunio recorded a message to David’s Hamas captors. In the brief clip, she spoke in Arabic and quoted the Quran, asking Hamas to treat her husband in accordance with Islamic law, which provides that hostages should be treated with compassion. Sharon also asks Hamas for proof of life of David.
You can watch her making this request here.
It would seem - based on the “teaser” - that Hamas intends to respond at some point soon with a video of her husband David. That is the hope.
Now. We go back to Saturday, January 4. One week ago.
The pace of everything here is insane. I really do not know how else to describe it. And I am dealing here just with the hostages. A slice of a much larger pie. Tragically.
Until the Hamas “reply” to Sharon Cunio that was posted late yesterday afternoon, this piece began with the section below focusing on Liri Albag.
II. Liri Albag
On Saturday, January 4, 2025, Hamas released a video featuring 19-year-old hostage, Liri Albag, who was brutally captured on October 7, 2023.
Later that day, her parents, Eli and Shira, addressed the nation briefly, in a heart-rending statement you can view below (an excerpt).
In keeping with the Albag family’s request, Israeli media have not broadcast the video. Liri’s parents did agree to allow publication of two still photographs of their daughter, clearly broken.
At some point in November 2023, Liri and three other young women with whom she had been captured were moved from civilian apartments where they had been imprisoned since October 7. They were all taken to the tunnels, where it is believed they have remained since.
On Friday night, Israeli TV channel 12 aired an interview with Eli and Shira Albag in their living room. The familiar photograph of Liri wearing a brown baseball cap (the one on posters put up around the world) had been replaced. On the wall behind them were two poster-sized images of their daughter; the haunting stills taken from the video.
Shira recalled how she had been in the living room with her other three children at 3 pm on the afternoon of Saturday January 4. She received a message that Hamas was releasing a video soon on the Telegram app. She called the IDF. Asked what they knew. Nothing. Asked them to update her when they heard something. Fifteen minutes later she called them again. Nothing. Shira had a strong premonition that this video would be of one of the five young, female soldiers brutally captured on October 7. She had no idea what was coming.
“She is not the same girl,” said Eli. “Not my Liri”, agreed Shira. “My Liri has self-confidence. She’s strong. Determined.”
This Liri, they said, seemed shattered. Lost. Her face was swollen. There were dark circles under her eyes. Her body shook, apparently, throughout the three-plus minute video.
The interviewer asked if there was a glimmer of their Liri in the video.
Were the comments she read into the camera all scripted he asked, or did her voice come through?
This evoked a sliver of light. They agreed that when she referred to her horrific ordeal as a “crazy journey” – that was a Liri expression. And when she remarked, they said, that she was just a 19-year-old girl. That, too was signature Liri.
Eli says he watches the video constantly. A self-described hardcore Likud and Bibi supporter – he believes that today, finally, the government is going all-out to bring the hostages home.
Shira is less forthcoming with praise, saying that the consequences say otherwise. The hostages are not here.
She expresses disdain for the many members of the Knesset who have not yet watched the video of Liri. More than a few have indicated they will not do so.
“Watch it,” Shira says. “Watch it before you go to bed. Imagine that your daughter or son is there. In the tunnels. In the dark.”
She’s right. Every last member of Knesset should watch that video.
When she spoke to PM Benjamin Netanyahu one week ago, following the release of the video, Shira said she cried and begged him to please bring them home. Now. While she is alive.
“She’s in your hands.”
III. Noam, Dafna and Ella Elyakim, Tomer Eliaz-Arava and Dikla Arava
When Liri and the other IDF female soldiers were taken to the Hamas tunnel dungeons in November, 2023, she spent some time in captivity with then 8-year-old Ella Elyakim.
Ella had been captured with her then 15-year-old sister, Dafna. For hours, the girls - together with their family - had been live-streamed while being terrorized by Hamas in their home on Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Later, they were all taken to the home of neighbors.
Tomer Eliaz-Arava, Ella’s 17-year-old stepbrother, was forced by Hamas to knock on the doors of neighbors. He told them that if they did not come out the terrorists would kill him and them. Some remained locked indoors. One family – Lishay Miran-Lavi and her husband, Omri Miran, with their 6 and 19-month-old daughters, decided to emerge.
Once Tomer had served his purpose, he, too, was murdered by Hamas. As was his mother, 51-year-old Dikla Arava, and her partner, 46-year-old Noam Elyakim.
At least, that was what we believed, until Friday - two days ago - when the results of an IDF investigation into these deaths at Kibbutz Nahal Oz were made public. What really happened was that in the chaos, Tomer had managed to slip away. He hid from the terrorists for more than six hours. On the kibbutz. When the IDF showed up late in the afternoon and spotted a suspicious person moving, they shot and killed him. It was Tomer.
Meanwhile Tomer’s mother Noam, Dafna and Ella were abducted, in the family car. Hamas terrorists drove speedily toward the Gaza Strip. The IDF identified terrorists in the vehicle and opened fire, killing Dikla instantly. Noam was injured and left to die. The girls, Dafna and Ella were taken from the car by Hamas terrorists and held hostage in the Gaza Strip until November 26.
IV. Lishay, Omri, Roni and Alma Miran
When I met recently with Lishay Miran-Lavi, she recalled that moment; when they decided to respond to Tomer’s beckoning. That split second when she and Omri looked at one another and agreed to leave their safe room. And walked into the maws of terror.
In the coming days we will publish a special podcast with Lishay and her brother, Moshe Lavi.
V. The Idan, Arava-Elkayam and Miran families
The Mirans – as was the Arava-Elkayam family - were taken to the home of the Idans. Maayan Idan, who had just celebrated her 18th birthday, was murdered in in the arms of her father, Tsachi. He went into shock, cradling his eldest, soaked in her blood. His wife, Gali, has recounted how Tsachi simply fell apart, from one moment to the next.
The families were told to sit on the floor in the living room of the Idan family. They were surrounded by masked, shouting, heavily armed terrorists who pointed their machine guns at the helpless civilians. Nine-year-old Shachar Idan, crying, asked his mother if the terrorists were going to kill them. She tried to reassure him. A Hamas terrorist then said that they don’t kill children. “But you just killed my sister,” the young boy said. So bravely.
There is no logic as to who was murdered, who was allowed to remain in Israel, alive, and who was taken hostage.
Gali Idan and her three surviving children remained in Israel. As did Lishay Miran-Lavi and her two young daughters. Their husbands, Tsachi and Omri, were bound and forced to leave with Hamas terrorists. Their children watched their fathers being marched away, helplessly, at gunpoint. The men have languished in the tunnels ever since.
Meanwhile, Dafna and Ella were also taken to the tunnels and forced to act out propaganda videos for Hamas.
These clips were found by the IDF on computers seized from the Gaza Strip. Hamas did not release them publicly.
Dafna said that Hamas made them do dozens of takes. They were striving for perfection, they said. This, too, was another form of torture
VI. Ella Elyakim and Liri Albag
Little Ella Elyakim, now 9, saw the photos of Liri in captivity that were published on Saturday, January 4. She told a television reporter that this was not the Liri she remembered. When she last saw her in the tunnels, in November 2023, she looked very different. Liri was optimistic. She sang songs. They did what they could to keep their spirits up. Ella said that it made her sad to see Liri in such dreadful condition.
VII. Three Murdered in West Bank Terror
On January 6, gunmen shot at a bus and private vehicles, murdering three Israelis and injuring seven.
VIII. Youssef and Hamza Al Ziyadne
On January 8, the remains of 53-year-old hostage, Youssef Al Ziyadne, were found by the IDF and returned to his family. A Bedouin man from Rahat – with two wives and 19 children - he had worked for 17 years in the dairy farm at Kibbutz Holit, one of the border villages that was attacked on October 7. Three family members were kidnapped with him: 17-year-old Aisha and 18-year-old Bilal. They were released in November 2023. Youssef and his son Hamza remained hostages.
On Friday. The day after his father’s funeral, the IDF confirmed that 22-year-old Hamza, too, had been murdered. DNA testing delayed the final confirmation of his murder. Hamza leaves a wife and two young daughters.
The recovery of the bodies of Youssef and Hamza has sparked a fresh rage and despair among the families. Each murder is as if it was their loved one. These families have bonded profoundly in their unimaginable and never-ending pain.
IX. IDF Soldiers Killed in Continued Fighting in the Gaza Strip
This war has gone on far too long.
The government’s communication with the public regarding its goals and progress has been shambolic.
Almost every day this past week there have been another two or three or four soldiers who have fallen in Gaza. Many are reservists. The toll is unsustainable and breaking this very strong nation. Every night, clips from the funerals of the fallen are shown on the news. This small country is worn out. Scenes of devastated families, day in, day out, have not numbed us. Each funeral is a fresh gutting.
On Thursday the younger brother of Matityahu Ya’akov Perel, 22, from Beit El, sobbed uncontrollably. He was speaking at the fresh grave of his brother and remembering when Mati was last home. Just a few days earlier. And he had wanted to tell him something about Gaza. But the younger boy was distracted in the moment and did not have the patience to listen. His lament, “What was it you wanted to tell me? Please Mati. What was it?” This regret will likely define this young boy’s life. Mati fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night.
Everything about Gaza is horrific. The civilian suffering. The destruction. The hostages. And the fact that after 15 months Hamas seems to have replenished its decimated fighting force somewhat and stores of weapons. Rockets have been shot steadily into southern Israel for the last few weeks and show no signs of abating. Soldiers are dying. The government insists that there is no need for a state inquiry and tells us that they are doing everything possible to negotiate a deal for the release of the hostages.
And yet. They cannot even bring themselves to watch a three minute video of a long-suffering 19-year-old.
Late last night, Saturday January 11, we learned that four soldiers had fallen in a battle earlier that evening.
X. Hostages Now Guarded by Suicide Squads
On Friday, Hamas announced that all hostages are now guarded by suicide squads who are prepared, one assumes, to kill themselves along with their quarry, should the IDF attempt a rescue.
And we were steeled for the release of yet another psychological torture video yesterday. It has become a thing, with Hamas. They have developed a practice of dropping such missives late on Saturday afternoons, knowing that Israelis are home. Relaxing. It also ensures that the weekly support rallies for hostage families will be even more agonizing.
The videos are signs of life. But the lives they show are so desperate, depleted and beyond devastating.
XI. The List
Last Monday we awoke in Israel to news of The List.
It had been published in a Saudi newspaper.
The List set out the names of 34 hostages in Hamas captivity. The Saudi paper reported that it had been drawn up by Hamas in the context of the current negotiations for a deal to release the hostages. Israel said that it had provided that list to negotiators last July.
One of the men on the list – Youssef Al Ziyadne – was returned to Israel in a body bag in recent days.
Of the rest, we have no idea who is alive. Who may have been murdered. This is Hamas.
Liri Albag is on The List.
By late Monday The List was being published everywhere, even in Israeli media. Even if it is meaningless, it means everything and nothing to the families. To see their loved one’s name. Or not. To know that even in May or June or July, when this list was drawn up, that their husband or father or son or brother – that he was left off the list.
He was being left to die. Slowly.
All men under 50 were not on The List, with the exception of humanitarian cases. Because Hamas considers them to be of military age, whether they are in the IDF or not. Whether they were taken from their civilian homes decades after having served, or not.
Among the names on the list are Ariel and Kfir Bibas, now five and two-years-old. Their mother and father, Shiri and Yarden, are also on The List. Hamas has claimed that Shiri and her little boys were killed in an Israeli air strike at the end of October 2023. But they have provided no proof of that assertion. Yarden was separated from his family at the time of his abduction from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Lists, in the contemporary Jewish lexicon, resonate.
Schindler’s List. Thousands of lists throughout the Holocaust in Europe. Who will be on the transport that day? Who will be on the list of those allocated a work permit, prolonging their miserable lives a few more weeks? Months at best.
My own father, a survivor from Romania, lost his cool when I very determinedly arranged to study at university in Israel in 1981-82. It wasn’t nearly as common then as it is today. Certainly not in Canada. He had come to Canada to give us all – meaning me and my siblings – a clean slate, as he put it. “Now – you will be on a list. Forever. Everyone will know that you are a Jew.”
This stuff. It runs very deep in the Jewish and Israeli consciousness.
XII. Romi Gonen
Violently abducted from the Nova Festival, 24-year-old Romi Gonen is also on The List.
Asked about this during the past week, her father, Eitan, said that the list was meaningless to him. Romi is still not home. As so many family members feel – f*@#k the lists. Just bring them home.
I first met Eitan Gonen in late December, 2023. In early January 2024, I interviewed both him and Romi’s mother, Meirav Leshem-Gonen. I also ran into Meirav by chance in June 2024, when she was in town to address the opening plenary session of the UN Human Rights Council.
The podcast about that day – as well as recordings from an interview I did with her on Mother’s Day, May 2024, can be heard here. (Meirav Leshem-Gonen)
This is a link to my initial interview with Meirav Leshem-Gonen, January 2024.
My podcast interview with Eitan Gonen, January 2024.
And, from a different family but still relevant, my podcast with Michael Levy, older brother of hostage, Or Levy, March 2024.
State of Tel Aviv has covered the hostage issue extensively. You will find additional podcasts and many articles on the issue on our website.
XIII. Saturday, January 11, 2025
There is no question that the threat of President-elect Donald Trump, which he has repeated frequently and forcefully – that there will be “all hell to pay” if the hostages are not released by January 20 – is having an effect. Put it this way. The senses of all parties involved - Israel, Hamas, Qatar, Egypt, America - appear to have been sharpened. Same goes for the backroom guys on this deal in Iran, Istanbul and elsewhere.
Earlier this week State of Tel Aviv dropped a podcast discussion with Jonathan Conricus in which we focus on the Trump threat.
Yesterday morning, a news report stated that Israel and Hamas have agreed to move forward with an initial stage of hostage releases in spite of not having resolved a key negotiation issue regarding an ongoing Israeli military presence in the Gaza Strip.
Who knows. We are all desperate for their release and jump at phantoms.
This may well be the last opportunity to save many of the hostages alive. We are braced for another video to be published.
There is no end.
As so many talking heads on TV have been saying recently that “there will undoubtedly be more than a few Ron Arads” at the end of the day. Among those making such remarks is Ron Arad’s brother, Chen. He appeared yesterday on a popular Friday afternoon television talk show commenting on his brother’s “disappearance” 38 years ago.
Ron Arad was an Israeli air force navigator who – along with his pilot – parachuted from their plane after being hit over southern Lebanon in 1986. The pilot was rescued by Israeli forces. Arad was captured and sold by Shiite militias including by Amal. His trail went cold in May 1988. Ron Arad’s fate is unknown.
Hamas stated yesterday (as it has done previously) that it does not know where most of the hostages are located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip due to the constant aerial bombardment by the Israeli air force. They are reported to have told negotiators that they require at least a week to locate the hostages and then an additional week to manage the logistics to return them to Israel; meaning that it would take at least two weeks from the signing of any deal for the first hostages to be released.
An impasse remains between Israel and Hamas with respect to a continued IDF presence in the Philadelphi Corridor in Rafah. Both parties are reportedly prepared to proceed with an initial phase of the agreement and release of some hostages, with others remaining in captivity until a final deal is reached.
Sands in an hourglass would weep if they could.
Wrenching.