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Photo Essay: Powerful Images Depict the ‘Before and After’ of Israeli Hostages
Hostages who were abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel are handed over by Hamas terrorists to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as part of a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel amid a temporary truce, in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip, in this screengrab taken from video released Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: Hamas Military Wing/Handout via REUTERS
When Hamas terrorists rampaged across southern Israel on Oct. 7, they not only murdered 1,200 people, injured thousands more, and abducted 240 others as hostages back to Gaza; they also changed the lives of thousands of families forever.
The devastating impact of Hamas’ onslaught on survivors of the Oct. 7 massacre can be seen in newly unveiled photos of some of the hostages who have been released, as well as family members of others still in captivity in Gaza.
The side-by-side photos — from both before and after the Hamas atrocities — are part of a project by photographers Sharon Derhy and Michal Chitayat. The idea behind the images was to highlight the urgency of releasing the elderly hostages, amid reports of their declining health. Indeed, a flurry of recent reports, backed up by official testimony from Israeli health officials, have highlighted the trauma and torture — both physical and psychological — that the hostages endured.
Lior Peri with his father, Haim Peri, seen with newspaper, who is being held hostage in Gaza. Photo: Sharon Derhy and Michal Chitayat
Derhy is the wife of Lior Peri, whose father Haim Peri, 80, is still being held hostage in Gaza without his life-saving heart medications. The idea for the photo series was born when Lior revisited his father’s front porch after accompanying a TV crew to the plundered kibbutz. He recalled a serene moment captured two years ago when he and his father sat there immersed in the weekend papers.
On a whim, Lior asked his sister, Noam, to take a photo of him in the same spot, now marked by the absence of his father. In the new photo, Lior sits alone beside an empty chair, with a poster of his father hanging on the door of his destroyed home.
Yocheved and Oded Lifshitz. Oded is still being held hostage in Gaza. Photo: Sharon Derhy and Michal Chitayat
The Lifshitz family, neighbors to the Peris, share a similar plight. Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was released after 17 days in captivity, and reported seeing Haim Peri alive in Gaza. Her husband, Oded, 83, remains in captivity. The photographers captured the ruins of the Lifshitz home and the burned-out carcass of Oded’s piano, in stark contrast to the photo taken before the attacks which shows the smiling couple posing in front of the piano.
Nurit Cooper is pictured with her grandson and husband, Amiram, who is still being held hostage in Gaza. Photo: Sharon Derhy and Michal Chitayat
Nurit Cooper is pictured with her grandson and husband, Amiram, 84.
Nurit, 79, was released together with Yocheved Lifshitz. Amiram, one of the founders of Nir Oz, saw the settlement of the Western Negev as his life’s mission.
Like the others featured in the photos, Amiram is still in Gaza without his medications.
Ohad Munder, flanked by his grandparents Ruthy and Avraham Munder. Avraham is still being held hostage in Gaza. Photo: Sharon Derhy and Michal Chitayat
The “before” photo depicts a smiling boy, Ohad Munder, flanked by his grandparents at a table on their porch in Kibbutz Nir Oz, their plates piled with food. The “after” photo is haunting both for all its striking similarities to the original — the same setting, the same hand placed affectionately on Ohad’s shoulder by his grandmother — and for its stark differences: The plates now sit empty, the smiles have vanished, and most jarringly of all, so has Ohad’s grandfather, Avraham, 78. Instead, a poster of him and the words “abducted” in Hebrew are tacked onto the wall.
Photo: Sharon Derhy and Michal Chitayat
Ruthy Munder, 78, her daughter Keren, 54, and grandson Ohad, 9, were taken captive by Hamas as part of the terror group’s savage attack on Oct. 7. They were released after 49 days. Avraham, who suffers from various chronic illnesses, is still being held captive in Gaza. The Munders’ other son, Roi, was murdered in his home in Nir Oz on Oct. 7.
Tamir Hershkovitz lighting the menorah in the ravaged home of his parents Noam and Maayana Hershkovitz, who were murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, on the first night of Hanukkah. Photo: Gadi Kabelo
The photo series was released on the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. Also on that day, Tamir Hershkovitz, son of Noah and Maayana Hershkovitz who were murdered on Oct. 7, was photographed lighting a menorah in the ruins of his parents’ home in Be’eri.
The crooked, rusty menorah, which belonged to Tamir’s late grandfather and Holocaust survivor Yosef, was one of the only items to survive the attack on their home.
Photo: Gadi Kabelo
Singing Maoz Tzur, a song about miracles traditionally sung after lighting the menorah, Tamir said he was “happy.”
“I choose to be happy for my parents,” the Yedioth Aharanoth newspaper cited Tamir as saying.
The post Photo Essay: Powerful Images Depict the ‘Before and After’ of Israeli Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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