Photograph: Family handout
Two weeks on, Noam Alon still isn’t ready to watch the video that shows his girlfriend, Inbar Haiman, being dragged towards Gaza as a hostage.
“My parents prefer that I don’t see it,” says the 24-year-old art student. “They’ve described every bit of it to me – and they haven’t made it any better or worse than it really is – but I still haven’t watched it. I don’t want it scarred in my mind. I’m trying to keep my mind as positive as I can and to do everything I can to bring her back.”
Haiman, a 27-year-old fellow artist from Haifa, was volunteering at the Nova festival in southern Israel when Hamas launched its terrorist attack early on the morning of 7 October.
When, as Alon puts it, “everything happened”, his girlfriend texted a friend at the festival, telling her to make for the open ground and to avoid the road, where the gunmen who had poured across the border were slaughtering the young festival-goers in a sustained assault that would leave more than 260 people dead and many taken captive.
He and Haiman’s family have pieced together what happened next thanks to the accounts of two young Israelis who were with her as she tried to escape. After hiding under a stage with her friends, Haiman and the pair – who she didn’t know – sprinted off into the bush to hide. It was there that a pair of attackers found her.
“They weren’t Hamas or Islamic Jihad – they were probably just Gaza citizens who got through,” says Alon. “One of them had a knife. They chased after Inbar and the boys, and at some point they managed to catch her. At that moment, another terrorist came riding on a motorbike and they took her. The two other guys escaped but they saw her get kidnapped.”
Alon and Haiman’s family had no news of her until the following day, when Alon’s father posted Haiman’s details – including a description of her tattoos and the clothes she was wearing – on Facebook to see if anyone had any information. People got in touch to say they’d recognised her, and particularly her distinctive leggings, in a video that Hamas had put on Telegram. In it, Haiman, who appears bloody and beaten, is being hauled off by four men. Not long afterwards, the two young Israelis who had been with her as she tried to escape made contact and told them what had happened.
“The video came as a kind of relief,” says Alon. “The other option – that she was dead – was far worse. Knowing that she’s now a hostage in Gaza isn’t easy – it’s something you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy – but it’s better than the alternative.”
Since then, the families of Haiman and Alon have been doing everything they can to bring about her return. Like the families of the other Israelis and foreign nationals being held captive in Gaza – who include children, elderly people, peace activists and soldiers – they are desperately hoping that mercy and decency will prevail. They are also hoping the hostages’ safety will trump the desire for swift military retribution from Israel.
Alon’s plea is simple. “I want the Israeli government and the UK government – and all the governments in Europe and the US – to do everything they can to make sure that the hostages are returned safe and alive,” he says. “That should be the most important thing for the Israeli army and for the Israeli government – putting the hostages at the top of their priorities. The hostages should come before any military operation; before any ground invasion.”
He says a deal must be struck to secure their freedom, pointing out that the obvious precedent was set 12 years ago by the agreement that saw the kidnapped Israeli solder Gilad Shalit freed in a trade that involved the release of 1,027 Palestinians.
“The deal won’t come cheap – we know that from the story of Gilad Shalit – but that is the price that the Israeli government should pay,” says Alon. “It is the price that Israeli society is prepared to pay.”
Until such a deal is reached, he adds, the Red Cross should be allowed into Gaza to check on the hostages and to make sure they are being given the food and medicine they need.
In the meantime, Alon, who has been with Haiman since they met at art college in Haifa 18 months ago, is determined to keep her story in the media. “I truly believe she will return to us. But we have to do everything we can to make sure that she does.”
And, despite the cruelty and pain involved, he is hoping she will surface in more propaganda footage. “It’s like they’re playing with our minds,” he says. “But I wish there was another video of Inbar. It would make me feel more hopeful.”
As the waiting goes on, Alon is not short of hope. Or devotion. “Inbar and I have been very close since the first day we met,” he says. “One of the reasons for that – besides the fact that she’s beautiful and charming – is that she’s truly, truly an amazing person. She’s kind and helpful and positive, and she’s an amazing artist and sweet and funny.
“She’s a really good friend – she’s always there taking care of other people and putting others first. You just want to be next to her.”
