WASHINGTON – A month after Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,400 people and took hundreds more hostage in brutal terror attacks targeting Israel, families of missing victims pleaded for help Tuesday during the weekly House Republican press briefing, where GOP leadership also criticized President Biden’s calls for Israel to stop the attack.
Doris Liber, an American citizen, told the story of her son, Guy Iluz, who has been missing since he attended the October 7 Nova music festival, where Hamas slaughtered more than 260 revelers.
“I’m here because it’s been 30 days — every day is like an eternity to me, and I can’t wait anymore because I know he’s been shot,” she said through tears. “We don’t know anything — we don’t have a list of hostages, we don’t know their condition. I have nothing, so I need your help.”
Liber, who was born in Queens but now lives in Israel, said the past month had been full of “head games”, as he had heard both his children had been taken hostage and that he had been killed by an Israeli attack on Gaza.
“No one knows anything. We do not know whether he was killed; it was just like the next day word spread that there were hostages,” he said. “I was just waiting to get a message that he had been identified, but we didn’t get it. Lucky me.”
“I am very proud to be an American and also to be an Israeli,” he added. “But I need you now because nothing is helping me right now. I prayed, which I didn’t do before, but — but please help me.”
Doris Liber spoke at a House Republican press briefing about her son Guy, who was kidnapped by Hamas from a music festival he was attending in Israel during the October 7 terrorist attack. Getty Images Liber said his family has been experiencing “head games” as they have heard conflicting reports claiming Guy was killed or held hostage. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Liber and his family are calling on Congress to help get the hostages returned from Hamas. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Liber’s appeal comes as the Biden administration continues to press Israel for a “humanitarian pause” in its ground assault on Gaza. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said his country would not stop its operations without “returning our hostages.”
State Department and White House officials said such a pause was needed to secure the release of the hostages and get humanitarian aid to the region — a move criticized by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) Tuesday.
“This is not the time to talk about a truce, a pause,” Scalise told reporters. “Hamas released him [Oct.] 7 when they go to villages and slaughter people, when they attack music festivals — peaceful music festivals — killing people, taking more hostages, including Americans.”
Liber with Israelwerke Schweiz director Christina Bumbacher at a rally calling for the release of hostages in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 22, 2023. Photo by GABRIEL MONNET/AFP via Getty Images
“The state of Israel has a right to exist and defend its people, and Israel is absolutely justified in its mission to eliminate Hamas once and for all.”
Scalise spoke three days after pro-Palestinian protests erupted in the capital, with tens of thousands marching on the National Mall to demand the US freeze aid to Israel over fears of civilian casualties in Gaza.
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But House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said Tuesday that “there can be no moral turpitude” about the conflict.
Hamas terrorists hold a small child hostage in a video released after the attack. Hamas terrorists on the Hamas line with an Israeli woman who was kidnapped on a truck in Khan Yunis on October 7, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
“Innocent victim poster torn down, American university [are] fail to protect their Jewish students from threats, harassment, and violence, and just yesterday, an elderly Jewish man in Los Angeles was beaten to death by pro-Palestinian protesters,” he said. “Hear this loud and clear: House Republicans stand with this family [of hostages] next to us.”
“We will do everything to ensure that Israel has the resources to return every last hostage to their families from these Hamas terrorists,” he added.
Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who has helped evacuate more than 200 Americans from Israel in the past month, said Biden has “emboldened enemies like the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hamas and left our key allies vulnerable in the position they are today.”
A blood-stained bed in a house in Kibbutz Nir Oz after a Hamas attack.REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
“The bottom line is that Joe Biden has proven time and time again that he does not prioritize the well-being of the American people at home or abroad,” he said. “We must not forget about those who are still stranded, including the innocent hostages that Hamas, the Iranian-backed terrorist organization, is still in their control.
“It has now been more than a month since Hamas terrorists took innocent Americans hostage,” he added, “yet we have no resolution and no plan or strategy by the administration.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
