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Hanna Mastronov, the aunt of hostage Yosef Haim Ohana, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in Kibbutz Re'im, said Wednesday morning in an interview with Ynet that the family received sign of life from him following the last round of hostage releases on Saturday: "We have a clear indication that he is alive," she shared. "There are signs of life that indicate that he is alive."
"We first chose to deal with a story under the radar. The fact that we are now going to the media is because we understand that there is probably not enough understanding of how serious the situation is," she said. "When we saw the people who returned last Saturday, it broke us even more than we were already broken. The feelings are not simple at all."
She referred to the return of hostages Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levi , saying that "it was a shadow of people, not people. I am happy that they returned, but I think about the others. What will happen to the others? Whoever looks at Sharabi, I don't know if he would have survived a few more weeks in captivity if they hadn't brought him. It's time to wake up. There is no time, absolutely no time - they need to return today."
She added that Yosef Haim is "a strong man - both in mind and body. But even human strength has limits. We are approaching 500 days. We didn't think it would last this long."
She said that when the family met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she asked him to bring her nephew back. "I told him that we are not politicians. To everyone's credit - Gal Hirsch, Shin Bet, everyone - they are available and provide a response. But behind the response there must be a basis of trust. If everyone is a humanitarian case stand behind your words," she said.
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"There is no place to stop (the hostage releases under the agreement) but to continue on," the aunt added. "We did not disagree as a family about the order of priority - sick people, women. I am happy for everyone who returned, every soul in Israel - we are happy for them. But we cannot count on the young people to survive forever. We are approaching the 500th day."
Yosef Chaim Ohana, 24, from Kiryat Malachi, was kidnapped from Nova by Hamas terrorists. His mother said that Yosef and his friend helped the injured at the Nova festival, them to the paramedics and ambulances.
"When I called his friend, he told me that when the shooting started, they helped the wounded and took them to receive treatment," his mother said. "They tried to run toward the main road, but then they saw that they were being fired at by RPGs. Yosef Haim ran to the left, and the friend ran to the right and hid under the car. The friend was hit by the missile, and managed to see Yosef Haim peeking from behind the car behind which he was hiding. After that, he didn't see him again."
'The last information was about 5 months ago'
On the other hand, Zvika Mor is still waiting to receive information about his hostage son, Eitan. When asked in an interview with Ynet whether any of the returned hostages have come forward with information about his son, the father said: "Not yet. And we are indeed waiting. I hope we too will receive good news."
"The last information was about 5 months ago, something like that," he shared. "We don't even have a list, we don't even have a Red Cross. While we're bringing aid trucks in there."
"We should have blown the deal at the first violation," Mor asserted. "It seems to me that the three hostages will be released on Saturday, and then why would Israel break the deal? No. I think Hamas doesn't want to get too involved with Trump, he's driving us crazy and he'll do what's necessary in the end."
Mor added, in light of U.S. President DonaldTrump's words regarding the ultimatum to Hamas: "We missed the opportunity. We had to show Hamas that we are not suckers. Shut off the water, the trucks, everything, and have Hamas come after us. But we didn't do that. We postponed and waited for the uncle from America to tell us who was needed for us - so we lost our authority here."