The family of twin hostages Gali and Ziv Berman announced on Tuesday morning that they had received signs of life from them after 494 days in captivity.
“We are taking a breath on one hand, but we know whose hands they are in and how much danger their lives are in,” the family said in a statement.
Their aunt, Maccabit Meyer, discussed the news during an interview with KAN.
“There is a sigh of relief but also fear,” she explained. “We received signs of life from those who returned in the last phase at the start of the deal. The two are not being held together, but they are alive and in mortal danger.”
Meyer described their condition after the abduction as “reasonable” but stressed the severity of their situation.
“I don’t need videos or testimonies. I was in their rooms after the abduction, in the extermination camp of Dor Tza’ir neighborhood, and I don’t need anything more than that to know the danger they are in. Anything could change the situation we were presented with.”
Twins not included in first phase of deal
The 27-year-old twins, residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, were kidnapped from the Dor Tza’ir neighborhood on October 7, 2023. They are not included in the first phase of the current hostage deal.
“It is understandable but painful,” their older brother Liran also said in a KAN interview.
“I don’t imagine them in the tunnels; I imagine myself running through the hospital corridors, hugging them, wrapping them in my arms, protecting them. When they return, I will do what I couldn’t do on October 7 as their older brother.”