The brothers of an Israeli held hostage by the Hamas militant group appealed for American support during a visit to Washington this week.
Yonatan and Ido Shamriz have met with legislators in the U.S. Capitol and addressed thousands of students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, with the same message Wednesday: Secure the safe release of their younger brother Alon from Gaza.
Hamas kidnapped Alon, 26, during a Hamas attack on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a village in southern Israel, on Oct. 7.
On the morning of the attack, Yonatan Shamriz, his wife and their 2-year-old daughter were awakened by the rampage and then spent the following 22 hours in their home’s safe room until the Israel Defense Forces rescued them.
Ido Shamriz, 32, a member of the village’s defense committee, battled the terrorists, while the Shamrizes’ parents also hid from the attackers.
At first, no one knew what happened to Alon.
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“At 10 a.m. our younger brother Alon sent me a message that the terrorists are going inside his house,” Yonatan, 33, recalled. “I wrote him that I love him and to be strong. Since then, we lost contact.”
For 10 days after the attack, which killed 63 village residents, the family had no word about Alon.
“We understood that there is not much of a chance that anyone there is alive,” Yonatan said. “In the next few days, we were just grieving. But the IDF came to us and told us this was apparently a kidnapping.”
A few days later, the military confirmed that Alon had been taken to the Gaza Strip. Nothing is known of his whereabouts or his condition, Yonatan said.
“This is a group of despicable terrorists who raped women, who abused, who beheaded babies,” he said. “And they are holding, right now, my brother. Every minute there, it’s like forever.”
“We are going crazy. I’ve never been to the Knesset [parliament] in Israel, and I’m here in the Capitol,” Yonatan said. “We’ve spoken with the most powerful people in the Capitol and the Senate. We’ve tried to do everything that we can, in order to put some pressure on the U.S. government to put pressure on Qatar, on every player that can lead to the release of the hostages.”
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The brothers “are completely out of our comfort zone, and we’re trying to do everything that we can by any means to get a release,” he added.
Ido said lawmakers “feel the urgency to act. They felt they needed to do something when they heard our stories. You can see in their eyes that they know this calls for action now — not tomorrow.”
Apart from the visit, the brothers plan to keep seeking a way for Alon and the other hostages to come home.
“I will do whatever I can do,” Ido said. “I will not rest until my brother [comes] back.”
The Shamrizes’ parents are experiencing a “roller coaster of emotions” as their youngest son’s condition is unknown, he added.
“There’s a moment like this and a moment like that, but we are all together, strengthening each other,” Ido said.
The Hamas attack, Yonatan said, “is not aimed only at Jews and Israelis. Soon, they will go to Europe and the United States. It’s everyone’s problem, it’s a wake-up call for all the world to act now, to prevent another atrocity like this. The world should stand firmly against these acts, and they should do it now.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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