Israeli volunteers search for hostages taken by Hamas

2023-10-17 16:27:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The International Committee of the Red Cross is pressuring Hamas to provide access to at least 199 Israeli hostages kidnapped by the militants more than a week ago. VOA Tel Aviv correspondent Linda Gradstein reports that hundreds of Israelis have formed a "war room" in a desperate attempt to find the hostages.

Photos of some of the 199 or so civilians abducted and sent to Gaza hang on the wall of Israel's Defense Ministry headquarters. A heartbreaking reminder for families and friends.

Among the kidnapped are small children and elderly people. The families of the hostages have come together to pressure the government to bring their relatives home. Einav Moshe Barda is the granddaughter of an abducted Israeli woman.

"They kidnapped my sick aunt, Adina Moshe, 70 years old. They threw him out of the window and a few hours later we learned what happened to him. In a video, she is seen between two terrorists. "Terrorists killed her husband and sent him to the Gaza Strip," she says.

The families of the abductees say that for more than a week no representative of the government has met with them.

But Israeli citizens formed what they call the "War Room for the Disappeared" at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Center. Hundreds of volunteers search the Internet for any evidence on the fate of the hostages.

Before the war began, many of these volunteers were members of a group called "Brothers in Arms," ??one of the organizations that supported the nine-month protests against the government's planned changes to the legal system. The group has now turned its attention to finding the hostages.

Israeli volunteers search for hostages taken by Hamas

"Israelis from different walks of life, technology, intelligence and social media, have gathered here to find as many clues as possible about what's going on," says Karine Nahon, who runs the makeshift operations room.

University professor Reichman says the data they have collected leads her to believe more than 100 of the hostages are still alive. The data collected by the volunteer group is sent to the Israeli authorities. VOA spoke with volunteer Omer Bialer.

"We found a lot of information about the abductees on social media. In some cases we understand that some have killed them. We collect data and share it. In some cases we find that some of the missing are still alive and communicating online about how they survived and what they are doing. We also continue further research for cases where there is not much data", he said.

Mr. Bialer says he is proud of the response of the Israeli people, who have donated food to the army and helped tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from their homes near Gaza. They have offered psychological help to the traumatized, says volunteer Omer Bialer:

"When you see people coming together and doing whatever needs to be done in this moment, to be strong and win over this situation, for me that's my biggest source of optimism."

Israel is ready for ground intervention in Gaza while many Israelis say that the return of the hostages is their priority./ VOA