Canada should press Israel to focus on release of Hamas hostages, says family member

The Current17:35Israel is risking hostages lives over petty politics: family member

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The Israeli government has not done enough to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas over a month ago, says a family member of some of the missing.

"I think it is [a] lack of trying. I think it is because the Israeli government has their priorities. I have no idea what their priorities are, but clearly they're not the right priorities," said Aharon Brodutch, an Israeli living in Toronto.

"Israel is dealing with petty politics and it's on the lives of my family," he told The Current's Matt Galloway.

Brodutch's sister-in-law Hagar and her three children aged 10, 8 and 4 have not been seen since Oct. 7, when it is believed they were taken by Hamas during an attack on their kibbutz, Kfar Aza.

Around 1,400 people were killed that day in Hamas attacks across southern Israel, while 240 people were taken back into the Gaza Strip as hostages, according to the Israeli government. Israel has retaliated with airstrikes and a ground invasion that have killed at least 11,078 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has also meant the 2 million Palestinians who live there have been cut off from fresh water, electricity and humanitarian aid.

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Aharon Brodutch's sister-in-law and three children were taken hostage by Hamas in Gaza. Speaking in Ottawa on Monday, he says the priority is to bring the families back to safety.

A small number of the hostages have been released in recent weeks. On Thursday, the Guardian reported that Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a Hamas offer last month to release some hostages in exchange for a five-day ceasefire. The CBC has not independently verified those claims.

Publicly, Netanyahu has said there will be no ceasefire before the safe return of all hostages, and reiterated his vow to "dismantle Hamas."

Aharon said he doesn't claim to understand the Israeli government's overall strategy, but emphasized that "every minute counts" for the people being held hostage.

"If a ceasefire is the right way to go to release them, there should be a ceasefire. If a deal is the right way to release them, there should be a deal," he said.

Israel has agreed to hostage swaps before, including the case of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held hostage for five years by Hamas-allied militants. He was eventually released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

According to Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, as of Nov. 1 Israeli forces had placed 2,070 Palestinians in administrative detention, without charge or trial. That data, supplied by the Israel Prison Service (IPS), also lists 2,313 sentenced prisoners, 2,321 remand detainees.

"The same deal [for Gilad Shalit] was on the table, you know, throughout the five years. Israel just delayed," Aharon said.

"Is the expectation that Yuval, my nephew who's four years old, will be nine will spend half of his life as a hostage?"

Asking Canada to apply pressure

Brodutch's brother, Avihai Brodutch, was injured in the Oct. 7 attack and only later learned his wife and three children were missing.

"I'm worried all day. I go to sleep worried and I wake up in the middle of the night worried," Avihai told CNN last week. "I really want my kids to be right here. I want to hug my wife."

Avihai has kept a vigil outside the ministry of defence building in Tel Aviv, to draw attention to the plight of the hostages.

In Canada, Aharon was among family members of the missing who met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week.

"We wanted to make sure that he hears the personal stories," Aharon said.

"Most politicians and most decision-makers are humans. And when they hear the stories, they understand what a terrible situation this is."

He wants Canada to "harness the rest of the world in making the hostage situation the number one priority" for the Israeli government.

Fighting a feeling of failure

Before the conflict broke out, Avihai's father-in-law was a volunteer who drove sick Palestinians across the border from Gaza to receive cancer treatment in Israel.

Aharon said thefather-in-law has already vowed to resume that volunteer work when the war ends.

"There's a clear distinction between the Palestinian people and Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization that is not only hurting Israelis, it is hurting Palestinians," Aharon said.

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Aharon thinks it's important that cross-community work like that continues, out of a deep belief "in human rights and everything that comes with it."

"If we lose that as a country, as a nation, I think as the Jewish people in general, then we've lost the war," he said.

"At the end of the day, we're really fighting for our basic core values as Israelis, and we can't lose them because of Hamas."

As the days without news of his family's safety have turned into weeks, Aharon has had to fight a feeling that he hasn't done enough.

"I say that the Israeli government has failed in bringing them back. But it's also me," he said.

"And so every day that passes starts with, 'I failed again.'"