
The families of hostages held in Gaza hope for their own ceasefire after truce in Israel-Iran war
OR AKIVA, Israel (AP) — Liran Berman hasn't had much to keep hopeful over the 629 days of his twin brothers' captivity in Gaza. Ceasefire deals have collapsed, the war has dragged on, and his siblings remain hostages in the Palestinian enclave.
But the war between Israel and Iran, and the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted 12 days of fighting, have sparked fresh hope that his brothers, Gali and Ziv, may finally return home.
With Iran dealt a serious blow over nearly two weeks of fierce Israeli strikes, Berman believes Hamas, armed and financed by Iran, is at its most isolated since the war in Gaza began, and that might prompt the militant group to soften its negotiating positions.
'Now it's the time to pressure them and tell them, look, you are on your own. No one is coming to your help. This is it,' Berman said. 'I think the dominoes fell into place, and it's time for diplomacy to reign now.'
During their Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Most have been freed in ceasefire deals, but 50 remain captive, less than half of them believed to still be alive.
The war has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.
The families of hostages have faced a 20-month-long nightmare, trying to advocate for their loved ones' fates while confronted with the whims of Israeli and Hamas leaders and the other crises that have engulfed the Middle East.
Israel's war with Iran, the first between the two countries, pushed the hostage crisis and the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza to the sidelines. Hostage families again found themselves forced to fight for the spotlight with another regional conflagration.
But as the conflict eases, the families are hoping mediators seize the momentum to push for a new ceasefire deal.
'The achievements in Iran are important and welcome, enabling us to end the war from a position of strength with Israel holding the upper hand,' said the Hostages Families Forum, a grassroots organization representing many of the hostage families.
'To conclude this decisive operation against Iran without leveraging our success to bring home all the hostages would be a grave failure.'
It's not just a diminished Iran and its impact on Hamas that gives hostage families hope. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, could feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.
Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu says he will only end the war once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.
Berman said the ceasefire between Israel and Iran has left him the most optimistic since a truce between Israel and Hamas freed 33 Israeli hostages earlier this year. Israel shattered that ceasefire after eight weeks, and little progress has been made toward a new deal.
The Israeli government team coordinating hostage negotiations has told the families it now sees a window of opportunity that could force Hamas to be 'more flexible in their demands,' Berman said.
Over the past four decades, Iran built up a network of militant proxy groups it called the ' Axis of Resistance ' that wielded significant power across the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria.
Hamas may have envisioned the Oct. 7, 2023, attack as a catalyst that would see other Iranian-sponsored militants attack Israel. While Hezbollah and the Houthis launched projectiles toward Israel, the support Hamas had counted on never fully materialized. In the past two years, many of those Iranian proxies have been decimated, changing the face of the Middle East.
U.S. President Donald Trump's involvement in securing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran has also given many hostage families hope that he might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza.
'We probably need Trump to tell us to end the war in Gaza,' Berman said.
Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, were taken from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the border with Gaza, during the Oct. 7 attack. Seventeen others were also abducted there; of those, only the Berman twins remain captive.
The family has heard from hostages who returned in the previous deal that, as of February, the brothers were alive but being held separately.
Liran Berman said that's the longest the two have ever spent apart. Until their abduction, they were inseparable, though they are very different, the 38-year-old said.
In Kfar Aza, the twins lived in apartments across from each other. Gali is more outgoing, while Ziv is more reserved and shy with a sharp sense of humor, their brother said. Gali is the handyman who would drive four hours to help a friend hang a shelf, while Ziv would go along and point to where the shelf needed to go.
The war with Iran, during which Iranian missiles pounded Israeli cities for 12 days, gave Liran Berman a sense of what his brothers have endured as bombs rained down on Gaza, he said.
'The uncertainty and the fear for your life for any moment, they are feeling it for 20 months,' he said. 'Every moment can be your last.'
___
Follow AP's war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
At least 81 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says
At least 81 Palestinians have been killed and more than 400 injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the 24 hours until midday on Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry said. In one incident, at least 11 people, including children, were killed after a strike near a stadium in Gaza City, Al-Shifa hospital staff and witnesses told news agencies. The stadium was being used to house displaced people, living in tents. Footage verified by the BBC shows people digging through the sand with their bare hands and spades to find bodies. The BBC has contacted the Israeli military for comment. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful a ceasefire could be agreed in the next week. Qatari mediators said they hoped US pressure could achieve a deal, following a truce between Israel and Iran that ended the 12-day conflict between the countries. In March, a two-month ceasefire collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The ceasefire deal - which started on 19 January - was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage. Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. On Thursday, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have intensified their efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled. A rally was organised on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv calling for a deal to free the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Organisers said "the time has come to end the fighting and bring everyone home in one phase". Meanwhile, Israeli attacks in Gaza continue. Friday evening's strike near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City killed at least 11 people, hospital staff and witnesses said. One witness said they were sitting when they "suddenly heard a huge explosion" after a road was hit. "This area was packed with tents - now the tents are under the sand. We spent hours digging with our bare hands," Ahmed Qishawi told the Reuters news agency. He said there are "no wanted people here, nor any terrorists as they [Israelis] claim... [there are] only civilian residents, children, who were targeted with no mercy," he said. The BBC has verified footage showing civilians and emergency services digging through the sandy ground with their hands and spades to find bodies. Fourteen more people were reported killed, some of them children, in strikes on an apartment block and a tent in the al-Mawasi area. The strike in al-Mawasi killed three children and their parents, who died while they were asleep, relatives told the Associated Press. "What did these children do to them? What is their fault?" the children's grandmother, Suad Abu Teima, told the news agency. More people were reported killed on Saturday afternoon after an air strike on the Tuffah neighbourhood near Jaffa School, where hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering. The strike killed at least eight people, including five children, the Palestinian health ministry said. One witness Mohammed Haboub told Reuters that his nephews, father and the children of his neighbours were killed in the strike. "We didn't do anything to them, why do they harm us? Did we harm them? We are civilians," he told the news agency. The health ministry said ambulance and civil defence crews were facing difficulties in reaching a number of victims trapped under the rubble and on the roads, due to the impossibility of movement in some of the affected areas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet commented on these reported strikes. The IDF released a statement on Saturday evening saying it had killed Hakham Muhammad Issa al-Issa, a senior figure in Hamas's military wing, in the area of Sabra in Gaza City on Friday. The IDF said he was one of the founding members of Hamas's military wing, a member of Hamas's general security council, and played a "significant role in the planning and execution" of Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. The Israeli military launched its bombardment of Gaza in response to the attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. More than 56,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Gaza mediators intensifying ceasefire efforts, Hamas official says UN condemns Gaza aid 'death trap' as dozens reported killed by Israeli fire GHF boss defends Gaza aid operation after hundreds of Palestinians killed near sites


The Hill
22 minutes ago
- The Hill
Biden, Harris attend funeral for slain Minnesota lawmaker
Former President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the Saturday funeral of slain Minnesota lawmaker, state Rep. Melissa Hortman, in Minneapolis. A man impersonating a police officer shot and killed Hortman, her husband Mark and their golden retriever in an attack officials describes as 'politically motivated.' State Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife Yvetter were also shot in their homes. The suspected shooter, Vance Boelter, is in custody. Biden and Harris were joined by over a thousand mourners who gathered to celebrate the life of Hortman and her husband on Saturday. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), his wife Gwen, former Gov. Mark Dayton (D), Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) and Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) also attended the funeral. 'Melissa Hortman will be remembered as the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history. I get to remember her as a close friend, a mentor, and the most talented legislator I have ever known,' Gov. Tim Walz said in his eulogy, according to the Associated Press. 'For seven years, I have had the privilege of signing her agenda into law. I know millions of Minnesotans get to live their lives better because she and Mark chose public service and politics.' Hortman was remembered for her tenure as Speaker in the state legislature as well as her extensive legislative agenda, which included free public school lunch. Walz honored her as the first woman to lie in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda in St. Paul on Friday for public viewing. Biden also paid his respects at the state Capitol on Friday. During his eulogy, Walz lauded the lawmaker as a close friend and public servant. 'Maybe it is this moment where each of us can examine the way we work together, the way we talk about each other, the way we fight for things we care about,' Walz said, per AP. 'A moment when each of us can recommit to engaging in politics and life the way Mark and Melissa did — fiercely, enthusiastically, heartily, but without ever losing sight of our common humanity.'


The Hill
26 minutes ago
- The Hill
What's in the latest version of Trump's big bill now before the Senate
WASHINGTON (AP) — At some 940-pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. Now it's up to Congress to decide whether President Donald Trump's signature's domestic policy package will become law. Trump told Republicans, who hold majority power in the House and Senate, to skip their holiday vacations and deliver the bill by the Fourth of July. Senators were working through the weekend to pass the bill and send it back to the House for a final vote. Democrats are united against it. Here's the latest on what's in the bill. There could be changes as lawmakers negotiate. Republicans say the bill is crucial because there would be a massive tax increase after December when tax breaks from Trump's first term expire. The legislation contains roughly $3.8 trillion in tax cuts. The existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill. It temporarily would add new tax breaks that Trump campaigned on: no taxes on tips, overtime pay or some automotive loans, along with a bigger $6,000 deduction in the Senate draft for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year. It would boost the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200 under the Senate proposal. Families at lower income levels would not see the full amount. A cap on state and local deductions, called SALT, would quadruple to $40,000 for five years. It's a provision important to New York and other high tax states, though the House wanted it to last for 10 years. There are scores of business-related tax cuts. The wealthiest households would see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, which would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House's version. Middle-income taxpayers would see a tax break of $500 to $1,500, the CBO said. The bill would provide some $350 billion for Trump's border and national security agenda, including $46 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and $45 billion for 100,000 migrant detention facility beds, as he aims to fulfill his promise of the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. Money would go for hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year. The homeland security secretary would have a new $10 billion fund for grants for states that help with federal immigration enforcement and deportation actions. The attorney general would have $3.5 billion for a similar fund, known as Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide, or BIDEN, referring to former Democratic President Joe Biden. To help pay for it all, immigrants would face various new fees, including when seeking asylum protections. For the Pentagon, the bill would provide billions for ship building, munitions systems, and quality of life measures for servicemen and women, as well as $25 billion for the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system. The Defense Department would have $1 billion for border security. To help partly offset the lost tax revenue and new spending, Republicans aim to cut back some long-running government programs: Medicaid, food stamps, green energy incentives and others. It's essentially unraveling the accomplishments of the past two Democratic presidents, Biden and Barack Obama. Republicans argue they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse. The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements for many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including older people up to age 65. Parents of children 14 and older would have to meet the program's work requirements. There's also a proposed new $35 co-payment that can be charged to patients using Medicaid services. Some 80 million people rely on Medicaid, which expanded under Obama's Affordable Care Act, and 40 million use the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Most already work, according to analysts. All told, the CBO estimates that under the House-passed bill, at least 10.9 million more people would go without health coverage and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps. The Senate proposes a $25 billion Rural Hospital Transformation Fund to help offset reduced Medicaid dollars. It's a new addition, intended to win over holdout GOP senators and a coalition of House Republicans warning that the proposed Medicaid provider tax cuts would hurt rural hospitals. Both the House and Senate bills propose a dramatic rollback of the Biden-era green energy tax breaks for electric vehicles. They also would phase out or terminate the various production and investment tax credits companies use to stand up wind, solar and other renewable energy projects. In total, cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs would be expected to produce at least $1.5 trillion in savings. A number of extra provisions reflect other GOP priorities. The House and Senate both have a new children's savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury. The Senate provided $40 million to establish Trump's long-sought 'National Garden of American Heroes.' There's a new excise tax on university endowments, restrictions on the development of artificial intelligence and blocks on transgender surgeries. A $200 tax on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns was eliminated. One provision bars money to family planning providers, namely Planned Parenthood, while $88 million is earmarked for a pandemic response accountability committee. Billions would go for the Artemis moon mission and for exploration to Mars. The bill would deter states from regulating artificial intelligence by linking certain federal AI infrastructure money to maintaining a freeze. Seventeen Republican governors asked GOP leaders to drop the provision. Also, the interior secretary would be directed to sell certain Bureau of Land Management acreage to provide for housing. The sale of public lands would cover at least 600,000 acres and up to 1.2 million acres, according to a projection from the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation group. Altogether, keeping the existing tax breaks and adding the new ones is expected to cost $3.8 trillion over the decade, the CBO says in its analysis of the House bill. An analysis of the Senate draft is pending. The CBO estimates the House-passed package would add $2.4 trillion to the nation's deficits over the decade. Or not, depending on how one does the math. Senate Republicans are proposing a unique strategy of not counting the existing tax breaks as a new cost because those breaks are already 'current policy.' Senators say the Senate Budget Committee chairman has the authority to set the baseline for the preferred approach. Under the Senate GOP view, the tax provisions cost $441 billion, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. Democrats and others say this is 'magic math' that obscures the true costs of the GOP tax breaks. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget puts the Senate tally at $4.2 trillion over the decade.