‘Pure hell’: With Thanksgiving approaching, calls for Hamas to released hostages persist

If found, Abigail Mor-Idan will be an orphan, likely with severe trauma. She is only 3-years-old.

Abigail lived in a kibbutz with her mother, father and 6-year-old and 9-year-old siblings less than two miles from Gaza with about 400 others. Neither of the children’s parents survived the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.

Abigail’s mother and father were both shot. Her siblings huddled in a cupboard for 14 hours among bloodied cloths.

“Since that time, there’s not been a word to know whether Abigail is alive or what condition she is in,” Congresswoman Lois Frankel said during a press conference on Monday morning in West Palm Beach.

Frankel, with Rabbi Ruvi New with the Chabad of East Boca and Lawrence Milstein, the regional director of the American Jewish Committee Palm Beach County, called for the release not only of Abigail but of the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas as the United States nears a deal with Israel and Hamas for a pause in the conflict.

“Each of us here have met with many of the survivor families who are living in terror, they call it pure hell,” Frankel said. “As we all look to celebrate Thanksgiving with our loved ones, we want to talk about the 200-plus families in Israel who are living in sheer terror because they do not know whether their loved ones who were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 are alive or what condition they’re living in.”

Milstein, who recently returned from visiting towns that endured what he described as “savage attacks,” said one of the revelations from the war is how intertwined it is with the Jewish community in Palm Beach County.

“It’s really hard to find a Jewish person here in Palm Beach County who doesn’t have some connection, an acquaintance, a friend or a family member that lives in Israel,” he said. “For many of us, we’ve been personally affected by the war. … We feel the pain, the outrage, quite deeply and personally, especially the plight of the hostages.”

One does not need a personal connection with the war to rally for hostages, though, Milstein said.

“Where is the moral outrage and the widespread demands for those calling for the immediate release of the hostages? Where are the calls for humanitarian aid for the hostages for visits by the International Red Cross?” Milstein said.

Instead, “despicable scenes” have played out, he said, such as tearing down posters of hostages.

Hamas did not discriminate in who they seized, Milstein said, grabbing citizens from nearly 30 countries, including the U.S.

“In the end, it really doesn’t matter where the hostages were from,” he said. “They were violently seized, they’re being held illegally and they must come home.”