Ella Ben Ami, whose father, Ohad, has been in Hamas captivity since he was taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, took to Instagram this week to describe the impact of the rumors about progress in the hostage deal on her.
“I’m not able to close my eyes,” she said in a video recorded in the early hours of the morning. “It’s just that these days of negotiation are so frightening.”
Ben Ami said that, on the one hand, she was terrified that negotiations could fall through, and on the other, reports of the deal have created a huge amount of anticipation.
“I can just imagine hugging my dad, and it hasn’t happened [yet],” she said.
“Every day is a new upheaval,” she said, adding that her stomach was churning.
“I don’t know what is true and what is false, and the uncertainty kills, and the helplessness is just too hard,” Ben Ami continued.
She said, “My stomach is turning over. I can’t eat anymore. I toss and turn in bed. These are incredibly complex days of ups and downs, and I’m just scared it’s the last chance” for a deal.
“A deal must be made because we can’t go on like this,” Ben Ami added, saying that she missed her father terribly and needed to be able to hug him again.
“I think of him every single moment – every minute. I think about the negotiations all the time and about the moment when he will be here,” she said.
Call for public action
“I can’t wait any longer; my soul can’t [take it] anymore,” Ben Ami added.
She called on the public to help do everything they can “so that those who need to decide if there is a deal make a deal.”
People should work to ensure that decision-makers “decide that people will come home, decide to save lives, and decide that those who need to come back for proper burial come back.”