Idit Ohel, the mother of Gaza hostage Alon Ohel, who has been held in captivity for 669 days, compared the propaganda videos released of hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavsky to Alon's great-grandfather, who survived the Holocaust, Ynet reported.
Ohel's mother asked, "Have we returned to the Holocaust?" referencing Alon's great-grandfather Simchat Ohel, a Holocaust survivor who left Auschwitz weighing 20 kilos.
Ynet reported that Alon's great-grandfather was born and raised in Poland. "He didn't speak words, but at night he would scream and shout," Kobi Ohel, Alon's father said.
"Alon has these genes," Idit explained, "He knows what it means to survive. He knows what it means not to eat. It's inherited. He feels me. If I'm strong, he's strong."
The Jerusalem Post previously reported in July that Ohel's medical condition is severely deteriorating in captivity.
Ohel, who is believed to have lost vision in one eye due to injuries sustained during his abduction by Hamas on October 7, is now in danger of completely losing his eyesight if he does not receive proper medical care soon, according to an assesment given by Prof. Anat Loewenstein, head of the ophthalmology department at Tel Aviv Medical Center.
“It is only a matter of time,” Loewenstein wrote in her letter to Ohel’s family. But, Loewenstein claimed, immediate, critical treatment may be able to save what remains of his vision.
Alon Ohel's mother questions entry of aid trucks with no conditions to release hostages
Idit Ohel voiced the concern of how humanitarian aid trucks can enter Gaza without a clear condition for the release of all of the hostages.
She asked, "It's not that the prime minister didn't know what was happening until the video. He knew. Everyone knows. But where is it in the Israeli discourse? Where is it in the international discourse? How long will they talk about it, a minute and a half? And tomorrow they'll move on?"
According to reports, Ohel is badly wounded and severely malnourished, somehow surviving without any proper medical treatment. "He survives not thanks to humanitarian equipment," Idit says. "He survives thanks to his playing, thanks to his faith, thanks to the fact that he knows that I am here, fighting for him," Ynet added.
Idit continued, "Have we returned to the Holocaust? As long as there's no picture, don't we talk about it? If we don't see it, then it doesn't exist? Alon looks exactly like we imagined. And this isn't a bad dream - this is reality," Ynet reported.
Holocaust survivors speak out for the hostages
Holocaust survivors interviewed by Israeli outlets on Sunday said the skeletal appearance of Israeli hostages shown in new Hamas videos is akin to what they themselves experienced in Nazi camps, warning that the captives are living through “a second Holocaust” and demanding immediate government action.
Eighty-four-year-old Dina Dega, who survived several concentration camps, told Walla that the image of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David “skin and bones … is exactly what we looked like in the camps... only he is alone and no one comes.” She called the government’s inaction “a second Shoah on Israeli soil.”
For 88-year-old Hannah Raanan, the latest footage was unbearable: “Even in the ghetto, we managed to eat something. The hostages look worse.” She accused the government of “betrayal” and added that the Hamas guards “are fat from the humanitarian aid while our children collapse.”
Survivors say time is running out. “We are living proof life can be rebuilt after the inferno,” Shapiro said, “but healing, for them and for us, starts only when every hostage is home.”