'I can breathe again': Family member of freed Hamas hostage speaks on horrifying ordeal
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It's been over 10 months since Hamas militants kidnapped more than 200 hostages from Israel.
A family member of one of the freed hostages is now working to help others. Her mission, though, is complicated by mounting tensions in the Middle East and the suffering of Palestinians.
They are all things Liz Hirsh Naftali discussed as she sat in the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza in Center City.
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"Sitting here in this square is emotional," she said. "Because after the Holocaust, we said 'Never again.'"
Then, though, came the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023. Naftali, who's from New York City, remembers the day clearly.
"I happened to have been in Israel on October 7," she said, noting that she spent much of that morning in a bomb shelter.
Experts estimate that 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.
Naftali's then 3-year-old great-niece, Abigail, was among the hostages. Her mother and father were both killed in front of her and her siblings.
"She was in her father's arms when they were running for safety. Abigail somehow survived, crawling from underneath her father's body and running to a neighbor's house. That neighbor's family was then taken by Hamas," Naftali recalled.
For 51 days, Abagail was held in captivity in Gaza until Hamas released her during the temporary truce in November.
"It was one of those moments when you think, 'I can breathe again!'" exclaimed Naftali.
Brought to Philadelphia this week by the American Jewish Committee, Naftali says she is a non-partisan advocate for the American hostages.
"There's eight Americans that are still hostages," she said, noting that she's traveled across the country and around the world meeting with officials to share the plight of the hostages and push for them to be freed.
"We have met with the president as recently as a week and a half, two weeks ago," she said.
Growing tensions, though, are a concern. Iran and its proxies are threatening to attack Israel, and Palestinians are reeling as the health ministry there says the death toll is approaching 40,000.
That includes the twin babies of one Palestinian man who says his children were killed in a recent Israeli airstrike.
Naftali thinks the solution starts with releasing the hostages.
"That has to come with a ceasefire, and with that, you help the people who are living in Palestine," she said. "There is a framework for a deal. We all know it's really close."
