A British psychotherapist whose elderly mother is being held hostage by Hamas has said the recent release of another Briton’s mother gives him “some hope” for the future.
Noam Sagi’s 75-year-old mother Ada was taken hostage after the militant group entered Kibbutz Nir Oz near the border with Gaza on October 7th.
Speaking after a press conference at the Israeli embassy on Tuesday, he described the release of London-based Sharon Lifschitz’s mother Yocheved as the “best bit of news” he has had since the invasion.
He told the PA news agency: “She is a very, very dear friend and a close member of the community where I grew up.
“I am intensely happy. It is the best bit of news that I have had since all this started.
“I am very, very happy that she is back in safe hands. It gives me hope of course.
“It is a paradoxical situation; we are speaking about crimes against humanity but we are expecting humanity to prevail.”
Ofri Bibas Levy, whose brother Jordan, his wife Shiri, their four-year-old old son Ariel and nine-month-old baby boy Kfir were taken hostage, told reporters the releases are “like torture”.
She said: “We can’t forget what happened. Those releases are like torture for us. It is really torture.”
Ayelet Svatitzky, whose mother and brother were taken from their homes and whose older brother was murdered, said: “On a personal level, someone’s mother came home, maybe not my mother.
“Someone’s mother came home yesterday, it is the beginning, it is far from the end.”
David Barr, whose sister-in-law Naomi was murdered on her morning run, told reporters: “They are releasing two people as if to show they are showing the world how compassionate they are?”
Ms Lifschitz told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme her mother is keen to pass on information about any hostages she was with.
She told the broadcaster: “To see my mum again is an incredible thing – to hold her hand and to kiss her cheek.
“I am so proud of her, she is amazing. Just the way she walked off and came back and said thank you was quite incredible to me. It’s so her.
“She is very sharp and is very keen to share the information, pass on the information to families of other hostages she was with.”
Mr Sagi told the programme: “I really want to hope that (my mother) is sitting somewhere and doing something that no politician can do, (that) she is using Arabic skills to talk to people and potentially do something.
“The other option is to follow negative, worrying thoughts about what could happen, and I don’t want to go there.”
The UK Foreign Office has said it will “continue to work tirelessly” to secure the release of more hostages.
