The mother of an Israeli man kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023 said she still does not know if her son is dead or alive but has ‘real hope’ that US President Donald Trump’s peace plan will result in the return of all hostages held in Gaza.
Herut Nimrodi told BBC News that he was “fearful that the worst could happen” to his son Tamir, a non-combat soldier. But two years after her son was kidnapped, she remained hopeful that “he was still holding on.”
She said he was the only Israeli hostage who was not told whether his family was alive or dead.
President Trump’s proposed peace plan is gaining momentum, with indirect talks between Hamas and Israel expected to continue on Tuesday to end the war and repatriate hostages.
“They’ve been trying to reach an agreement for a while but it hasn’t worked out. This time it feels different,” Mr Nimrodi said. “There is hope that this is the final deal.”
She said it was especially important to release all hostages, alive and dead, in the first phase of the plan.
“This is huge. This is a blessing to us,” she said.
“It is urgent to release the hostages, those who are still alive and even those who are dead. We do not know what condition their bodies are in. We need to release them so that families can have some closure. Even families who have been informed that their loved one has died do not accept it because they need proof.”
Tamir is one of 47 hostages kidnapped on October 7 who remain in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
The last time she saw her son was in a video of his kidnapping posted on social media on October 7, 2023.
“My youngest daughter, who was 14 at the time, came and screamed that she had seen her brother being kidnapped on Instagram,” she recalled.
“I saw Tamir in his pajamas. He was barefoot. He didn’t have his glasses on. He could barely see without them. He was scared.”
After seeing her son (18 years old at the time), who was an Israeli military training officer, being kicked out in a jeep and ‘disappearing into the Gaza Strip’, she was unable to find any trace of life.
“He is the only Israeli who has no comment about what happened or exactly where he is,” she said.
The fate of Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi is also unknown.
Like other families the BBC spoke to whose relatives were killed or kidnapped that day, Mr Nimrodi said his life had been frozen for two years.
“People ask me, ‘It’s been two years, how are you holding up?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s been two years. “I feel like I’ve had a long and hard day,” he said.
That day two years ago was the deadliest day in Israel’s history. About 1,200 people have been killed and 251 taken hostage by militants from Hamas and other groups. Most of them were from southern communities and music festivals.
The attack sparked a war and more than 67,000 people have been killed in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Almost the entire population was displaced and much of the infrastructure collapsed.
Mr Nimrodi said he was at home near Tel Aviv early on October 7, 2023, when he received a message from Tamir’s post north of the Gaza border.
“He said, ‘There are rockets and it’s non-stop,’” she recalled.
Tamir said he would soon return home as usual due to his non-combat role.
“I told him to take care of himself and text me whenever he can and he said he would try. Those were the last words between us. It was 6:49 in the morning, and I later found out he had walked away 20 minutes after my last message,” she said.
She has been lobbying for her son’s return, including rallies with other hostage families.
But she said there were days when she “couldn’t get out of bed.”
“I try to listen to my body: What should I do? How strong am I?”
The momentum of the peace plan has brought hope to the remaining hostage families that their loved ones will soon be able to return home.
Mr. Nimrodi joined tens of thousands of people, including hostages’ families and former hostages, who gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to call for implementation of the deal.
She was wearing a T-shirt with her son’s picture on the front, smiling and wearing glasses.
“I believe in this deal and I believe Trump will not lose sight of this deal,” she said, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “do the right thing by bringing the hostages home and bringing peace to the region.”
She said that when she tried to sleep that night, she would see the ‘horrified look’ in her kidnapped son’s eyes that played in her head every day.
“Hoping for two years is really exhausting.”
