Families of hostages held by Hamas joined a rally in London to call for their release, saying the six months after the October 7 attack have been “hell”.
Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan, actress Dame Maureen Lipman, and influencer Oli London joined the event attended by hundreds of people at St Johns Wood United Synagogue on Sunday.
Sunday marks six months after Hamas’s raid on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw militants seize about 250 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes have left more than 30,000 Palestinians dead, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
Attendees on Sunday afternoon raised photos of the hostages and waved Israeli flags during the event.
Michel Nisenbaum was taken by Hamas as he was on his way to pick up his granddaughter to take her to her mother.
The 59-year-old’s daughter tried calling when she saw videos of Hamas in Sderot, where he was, and Hamas answered his phone.
That was the last time his family heard from him, his niece Ayala Harel told the PA news agency.
She said: “He went out, about five minutes later his daughter saw the video of the terrorists inside Sderot, and she was trying to call Michel and he didn’t answer the phone.
“And then she realised that something is happening if he’s not picking up the phone.
“She was trying to call him again and again and 15 minutes later, Hamas pick up his phone and just shout on the phone, ‘Hamas, Hamas, we’re here, we came from Gaza to Israel’.
“They were calling back his daughter and said, ‘we took him, we took him, this is Hamas here’ and his daughter was panicking and she hung up the phone.
“And that was the last time that we heard something.”
Two weeks later, the family were informed Mr Nisenbaum had likely been taken hostage as his car was found burnt on the road – but no body was found, she added.
Ms Harel said the last six months have been “hell” for her family.
“I can’t go back to my life, I live in south of Israel. So I’ve been there on October 7. I’m a survivor myself and I can’t go back to my house yet,” she said.
“And since then, we don’t live. I’m just dealing with this, with the hostages.
“I just want them back.”
She added: “It’s been six months, it’s not normal.”
The families of hostages Omer Wenker and Shlomi Ziv recorded messages which were played at the event as they were unable to get to London on Sunday.
Mr Wenker’s father Shai Wenkert said his 22-year-old son was kidnapped by Hamas at the Nova music festival.
He said: “He was brutally kidnapped. We saw a video of Omer on October 7 that he was kidnapped by Hamas.
“We have evidence from the released hostages that he’s still alive, not in good shape. And we know he doesn’t get any medicine and we are very worried about him.”
He added: “We need all the world to know what happened in Israel on October 7.”
Mr Ziv’s sister Revital Azulay said he was also taken from the Nova music festival where he was working as security staff, and she said the families of hostages “cannot go on with our lives without them”.
She said: “It has been six months since I’ve heard my brother’s voice.
“On the morning of October 7 I call him, he answered while he was running from the terrorists and told me I will call you back. I’m still waiting.
“It’s six months that my life has stopped, all I do is fighting for my brothers and sisters.
“We must bring them all home. We cannot go on with our lives without them.”
Dame Maureen said: “We cannot allow people to forget or to belittle their plight and move on with the rest of the world to tastier sound bites.
“We need to be reminded to keep on calling for the release of the innocents. We will not accept the victims being turned into the villains or just into the vanished.”
Colonel Kemp called the rally “incredibly important”, adding that he has spent most of the last six months in Israel and said “they see what goes on in this country and other countries across the world and they have enormous appreciation for the solidarity that you show in events like this”.
