Lord Michael Levy, a prominent Jewish Labour peer, revealed during an emotional speech that he is related to one of the 129 hostages remaining in Hamas captivity, Jewish News reported on Friday.
Levy had been close with his 27-year-old cousin regularly before she had been kidnapped to Gaza, he told Sky News. He said it had been a “very distressing time” for the family and “What happened was absolutely tragic, barbaric. There are no other words to describe it.”
Condemning Israel's military actions
Levy also stressed that, while he had visited his family in Israel and seen the pain his family was experiencing, he felt Israel’s response to October 7 was “horrendous.”
He told Sky News: “Similar deaths, seeing young babies killed. Just seeing the destruction that’s taking place. It really is just terrible.”
The number of civilian casualties in the Israel-Hamas war is unknown, although the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims the total to be at 35800.
The United Nations revised the number of women and children killed in May, halving original estimates. It was later reported that 40% of the total deaths in Gaza were based on unverifiable data.
“I think that’s gone as we sit here now. I pray there is a way forward. How can a society live like that? For Israel to be constant fear, but for the Palestinians, how can they live like that? There has to be a way forward,” he said during discussions on a two state solution.