The families of four Israeli hostages have urged Rishi Sunak to apply pressure on Qatar to help free their loved ones.
The father of 18-year-old Liri Albag, the older brother of 26-year-old twins Ziv and Gali Berman, and the girlfriend of Eliya Cohen, also 26, pleaded with the prime minister to do everything in his power to secure their release after 108 days in captivity.
During a week-long truce in November, Hamas released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, in a deal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US.
Albag, one of the youngest remaining hostages, appeared in a Hamas propaganda video after she was abducted near the Gaza border on 7 October. Her father, Eli Albag, said he looked into Sunak’s eyes at a lunch organised by the Conservative Friends of Israel as he pleaded for the government’s help in brokering a new deal. “I will try to move every stone in the world to bring my daughter and all of the hostages back. Our family is destroyed,” he said.
Clutching a photograph showing his terrified daughter in captivity, the 54-year-old fought back tears as he spoke of his fears. “Look at her eyes, they say everything. This is what I see every day, every minute, every second, this photo. It’s flashing in my mind all the time and I cannot sleep, I have to take medicine.”
Albag’s family have spoken to released hostages who encountered the teenager in captivity and reported back that she was “doing OK” and making do with little food and water. But her father said he was worried about reports of rape and sexual violence carried out by Hamas fighters on 7 October and against hostages in Gaza – accusations the militant group denies.
He said: “When I asked if they carried out sexual attacks – I asked a hostage who came back – she was silent but she moved her face so I understood that something happened there. The hostage saw something but she didn’t want to tell us.”
Ziv Abud said she told Sunak of her first-hand experience of the Hamas massacre after Cohen, her boyfriend, was abducted from the Supernova music festival. She and Cohen were hiding in a shelter with relatives and friends when Hamas opened fire. Cohen, a businessman, was injured and kidnapped while Abud, 26, survived while trapped under a pile of dead bodies for six and a half hours.
“I told them my story because I was at the party and I saw everything,” she said. “Hamas threw nine grenades into our shelter and I heard Eliya screaming and he told me that he was hurt and after two minutes I felt his hands slipping away as they pulled him away.”
Hours later, she found that Cohen was missing and that her nephew and his partner had been shot dead next to her. She later discovered that Cohen had bought an engagement ring and had been planning to propose to her. “I don’t feel alive now. I’m just waiting. Every day I’m just waiting for him, for all of the kidnapped. We can’t just go on when they’re not home,” she said.
Liran Berman said his “life stopped” on 7 October when his brothers Ziv and Gali – football-loving twins who worked as light technicians and spent all their time together – were abducted from the Kfar Aza kibbutz. The 36-year-old said he “begged” Sunak to help release the remaining hostages.
Israeli officials say 132 hostages, including 19 women and two children, remain in Gaza, while several captives had been killed.
Berman said: “If Qatar decides to tell Hamas to release all the hostages, they will be here yesterday. It’s in Qatar’s hands, and we know that the UK has a lot of leverage on Qatar so we came here to ask – to beg, to demand – to stop this and to release all the hostages.”
He added that Sunak was “very supportive and sympathetic”, saying “he will do whatever he can to help us, he will speak to whoever he can and he will fight antisemitism in the UK”.
