The families of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas made an emotional appeal for U.S. aid at a press conference held by House Republican leadership on Tuesday.
“He actually said, ‘I want to say my last words. We’re not going to survive it.’ Nobody survived it. Everybody is killed,” said Doris Liber, whose son was kidnapped by Hamas militants at a music festival in southern Israel where more than 250 people were killed.
As her son, Guy Iluz, was hiding, Liber said her husband encouraged him to hide under dead bodies so the terrorists would not notice him. She said he told her he had been shot in the arm.
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“His father doesn’t let him speak. He says, ‘Shush, don’t talk. Don’t let them hear you.’ And I try to, you know, tell him, ‘Guy I love you. Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen. I’m going to call now. I’m going to send somebody now to get you.’ And that’s what I did. I hung up, and I regret that, since I didn’t hear from him since,” Liber said.
It has been 30 days since Hamas militants infiltrated Israel’s borders on Oct. 7 and slaughtered roughly 1,400 Israelis – mostly civilians.
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“It’s been 30 days. Every day is like eternity to me. And I can’t wait any longer because I know that he was shot. I know I don’t know anything…We don’t have a list of the hostages. We don’t know their condition,” Liber said.
“I’m so proud of being an American, being an Israeli as well. But I do need you now, because there’s nothing helping me now. I pray, which I didn’t do before. But just please help me.”
Yonatan Lulu-Shamriz, whose brother Alon Shamriz is also being held hostage, warned the U.S. would be “next” if it did not take action to stamp out Hamas.
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“This is a call for action. And this is a wake-up call – not only for Israel, not only for the Jewish community. This is a wake up of all the all of you here, all of America, all of Europe,” he said.
“You are next. And we should do everything that we can to stop this atrocity.”
A House GOP-led bill giving $14.3 billion to Israel while taking it out of money President Biden allotted to the Internal Revenue Service passed along bipartisan lines last week, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., panned it as a nonstarter in the upper chamber.