'Bring me home': How countries are ramping up efforts to free hostages held by Hamas

“I’m begging the world to bring my baby back home. She only went to a party, to a festival party to have some fun. Now she’s in Gaza,” Keren Schem, mother of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman being held by Hamas, appealed for her release on Tuesday. She called her detention and that of an estimated 200 hostages “a crime against humanity,” while talking to journalists in Jerusalem as reported by The Guardian. A video of Schem, who was held hostage during the deadly attack on Israel, was made public by Hamas. In the video, Schem, whose damaged arm is shown being treated by an unnamed medical practitioner, asks to be returned to her family as quickly as possible. This has intensified the efforts by the countries to bring back their hostages held by Hamas. Urgency builds “So far, we have received requests from various countries for the release of their citizens. As a result, we started to discuss these issues, especially with the political wing of Hamas,” Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan spoke from Beirut as calls mounted from the captives’ families for world leaders to intervene, in a news conference in Beirut alongside his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib. President Joe Biden and the White House’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs spoke with family members of the 14 Americans who were still missing on Friday. It came as family members of suspected American hostages staged a press conference in Tel Aviv, pleading with the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for assistance. **Also Read: What’s Israel doing to rescue hostages in Hamas captivity?** Scores of people were captured during Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, when Palestinian militants killed more than 1,400 people. Israel has since carried out a grisly retaliation, with round-the-clock air strikes that have killed around 3,000 people in the Gaza Strip. Children and senior citizens account for 60 per cent of casualties, Palestinian health ministry figures say. [caption id=“attachment_13263642” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Flyers reading “Kidnapped” and showing Israelis taken hostage are posted on a public notice board, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. Reuters[/caption] For the tenth day, the Israeli army has maintained a complete siege on the Palestinian enclave that has stopped water, food and electricity from reaching about 2.3 million Palestinians. The Israeli army has confirmed at least 199 captives were taken to Gaza. Hamas had claimed that they hold around 250 in captivity. **Also Read: ‘Mom died on top of me’: Heartbreaking tales of survival from the Israel-Hamas war** “Our efforts continue, especially for the release of foreigners, civilians and children. We will continue our efforts to ensure lasting peace,” Fidan said Tuesday, a day after he held a phone conversation with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh about the hostages. ‘Beg the world’ French president Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday also said that intense talks were underway to secure the captives’ release. “I want to be very cautious here… so as not to endanger the intense talks we are currently conducting,” Macron told reporters in the Albanian capital Tirana. “But they are progressing and we are following these talks hour by hour.” France was “working with its partners to free French hostages held by Hamas”, the Elysee presidential palace later quoted Macron as saying. **Also Read: They took my wife and daughters’: The horror stories of Hamas violence** Macron spoke after the mother of French-Israeli captive Mia Shem, urged world leaders to secure her daughter’s release after the Islamists aired a video apparently showing the young woman in captivity. Hamas aired the video on its official Telegram channel, showing a young woman speaking Hebrew. In the video, the woman says she is being held in Gaza, is being well treated and appeals for her release. ‘Colossal’ failure Shem said her daughter was at a rave party in the desert near the border when she was captured and taken to Gaza during the 7 October Hamas attack. The Israeli government has come under criticism for its response to the captives’ situation. [caption id=“attachment_13263662” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] An Israeli woman holds a sign as the families of people who are missing or were abducted from Israel. Reuters[/caption] Since the attack, dozens of Israelis have tirelessly held sit-ins in front of the defence ministry in Tel Aviv to demand the release of the captives and the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “All these people (the hostages) must come home. This government has failed in a colossal way,” said Mona Hanoch, 58. Nearby, sitting on a plastic chair, Cindy Cohen, 65, held up a sign reading: “Prisoner exchange agreement now.” “We must release all the hostages in exchange for all the (Palestinian) prisoners held by Israel,” she added. Hamas stands by demands Hamas officials believe the scores of hostages it took during its attack on Israel gives it enough leverage to free all Palestinians currently imprisoned in Israel, despite a multilateral effort to secure their release as the group’s war with Israel intensifies. “The hostage situation is very important for us. The world wants to talk about Israeli hostages; from our side, we have 300 child prisoners in Israel, we have 60 women who are political prisoners, and thousands of our young men as well,” Osama Hamdan, the Palestinian group’s representative in Lebanon, told The National. Hamdan stated that Israeli hostages, both civilian and military, would continue to be used as a bargaining chip in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. “Any talks about the Israeli soldiers have to begin with a discussion about the freedom of those Palestinians first,” he said. According to the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, about 22 hostages were killed in Israel’s shelling of Gaza, which has resulted in over 2,800 deaths in the blockaded area. Attempts by nations with Hamas relations, like as Qatar and Turkey, to negotiate the release of the captives have so far failed. With inputs from AFP