TEL AVIV — It’s Almog Levy’s third birthday on Tuesday, but his parents won’t be able to celebrate it with him. The last time he saw them was on Oct. 6, hours before his mother, Eynav, was shot dead by Hamas gunmen, who abducted his father Or.
Watching him “calling for his parents every day, and [not] understand why he can’t meet them — I can’t even start to describe how horrible this feeling is,” Michael Levy, Or’s older brother, told NBC News on Monday.
“He wants his parents back,” Levy said, after the Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a video showing his brother being taken captive alongside Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and Eliya Cohen, 26.
The video shows the men being kidnapped on Oct. 7 from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel — the site where Almog’s mother Eynav was killed.
The three men are bloody and appear dazed as the Hamas militants shout in Arabic in the graphic footage, recorded by Hamas and reviewed by NBC News journalists. Part of Goldberg-Polin’s left arm is blown off as he lies on the back of a truck clearly in pain.
It’s been nine months since Levy last saw his brother and “not in a million years” did he think it would take this long for the Israeli government to secure the release of the hostages, he said.
“I thought he’d be with us now — actually a few months ago,” Levy said of his brother, calling the intervening period “the longest nightmare I’ve ever had.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his fragile coalition government have faced fierce criticism from the families of the hostages, as he remains focused on his stated aim of destroying Hamas militarily.
Over the weekend, Netanyahu appeared to back further away from a cease-fire agreement with Hamas that is supported by the Biden administration, saying the “intensive” phase of Israel’s war in Gaza would end soon and signaling that he would accept only a “partial” deal that would not end the war.
And there is growing frustration within Israel and on the international stage over Netanyahu’s handling of the war. More than 37,600 people in Gaza have been killed since Israel launched its offensive following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and over 240 others taken hostage.
The Israeli leader was forced to dissolve his war Cabinet following the resignation of his chief political rival and former defense minister, Benny Gantz.
Asked what his message to the Israeli government would be, Levy said: “You need to do everything, everything in your power, to bring them back as soon as possible. We need to get to a deal now.”
He added that the government was “running out of time” to secure the hostages’ freedom. “This video today just showed how horribly they are treated. I can just imagine how badly they are treated now,” he said.
Although more than 100 hostages were released as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners in late November, Israeli officials believe 120 remain in Gaza as of Monday and at least 44 are thought to be dead.
Levy said he was determined to ensure that people thought of his brother as a name instead of a number.
“He’s my baby brother,” he said, adding that he missed “calling him and crying about our lousy basketball team” and the “fact that I can pick up the phone and talk to him.”
“I miss the small things,” he said.
Shira Pinson reported from Tel Aviv and David Hodari from London.