British hostage families hopeful after ceasefire deal

British households of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas are reacting with cautious hope to the ceasefire deal that has been negotiated to finish the 15 months of battle in Gaza.

The 94 hostages nonetheless held by Hamas – 34 of whom are presumed useless – can be launched below the deal in varied phases, US President Joe Biden has confirmed.

The daughter of 84-year-old hostage Oded Lifschitz instructed the BBC she hoped her father was nonetheless alive. “Miracles do occur,” Sharone Lifschitz stated from her east London dwelling.

The household of one other hostage, Eli Sharabi, stated they hoped he could possibly be freed within the first part of the deal, the place 33 hostages can be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

“I’ve thought so onerous about how I’d really feel at this second however now it is taking place I do not know what to really feel,” stated his brother-in-law Stephen Brisley.

Mr Brisley’s sister Lianne, a British citizen, and his teenage nieces Noiya and Yahel had been murdered in Hamas’s assault in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, by which about 1,200 individuals had been killed and 251 others had been taken hostage.

Israel in response launched a large army offensive to destroy Hamas. Its marketing campaign has killed greater than 46,700 individuals in Gaza, in response to the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry, displaced a lot of the 2.3 million inhabitants and prompted widespread destruction.

There stay extreme shortages of meals, gas, drugs and shelter in Gaza.

After months of on-and-off negotiations, a ceasefire deal has been reached and is because of come into impact on Sunday, stated Qatari and US meditators.

Mr Brisley, from Bridgend in south Wales, instructed the BBC he was cautious about his brother-in-law’s launch as feared potential set-backs.

“That is the most effective information we’ve got had up till now however you simply by no means know with the events concerned and the weeks we are going to nonetheless have to attend is a bloody very long time.”

Sharone Lifschitz instructed the BBC her father Oded had been held in captivity all this time whereas her mom Yocheved had been launched in October 2023. The household doesn’t know if her father remains to be alive.

“I do know that the probabilities for my dad are very slim. He is an aged man, however miracles do occur,” she instructed the BBC.

“My mum did come again, and a technique or one other, we are going to know. We are going to know if he is nonetheless with us, if we will take care of him. We are going to know… My father did not deserve this.”

She celebrated the ceasefire deal as lastly a “little bit of sanity”.

However she warned there have been “extra graves to come back and traumatised individuals to come back again however we are going to take care of them and make them see mild once more”.

“Might this be the beginning of one thing higher. It will likely be superb to see the moms hugging their kids and the youngsters hugging their fathers and we are going to know who we’re grieving for.”

The household of Emily Damari, a British-Israeli citizen, is amongst those that have campaigned relentlessly for her launch.

Her mom Mandy instructed the BBC final month she apprehensive each second for her daughter, a Tottenham Hotspur fan who was taken from her dwelling by Hamas gunmen.

On Wednesday night time she shared photographs of soccer followers at an Arsenal v Tottenham match who had introduced messages of assist for her daughter.

“You’ve gotten come collectively to say ‘deliver her dwelling’. Thanks,” Mandy Damari wrote on X.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday described the deal as “long-overdue information that the Israeli and Palestinian individuals have desperately been ready for”.

“The hostages, who had been brutally ripped from their houses on that day and held captive in unimaginable circumstances ever since, can now lastly return to their households,” he stated.

“However we also needs to use this second to pay tribute to those that will not make it dwelling – together with the British individuals who had been murdered by Hamas. We are going to proceed to mourn and keep in mind them.”

International Secretary David Lammy known as the ceasefire “a second of hope after over a yr of agony”.

“For the hostages and their family members, together with British citizen Emily Damari, and Eli Sharabi, Oded Lifschitz and Avinatan Or, this has been an insufferable trauma.

“For the individuals of Gaza, so lots of whom have misplaced lives, houses or family members, this has been a residing nightmare.”