BROOKLINE, MASS. (WHDH) - As fighting draws on in the conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas, there is growing worry here at home from people who say their loved ones were taken hostage.
Now more than 100 days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, several local residents spoke to 7NEWS about their relatives.
“Where are these 136 souls?” said Tamar Davis Galper. “They’re people. They have families who love them and care for them and are just waiting for them to come back.”
Galper, a Brookline resident, wore the number 104 on a piece of masking tape over her heart, symbolizing the 104 days Israeli hostages have been held captive by Hamas.
The situation is personal for Galper as she says her American-born cousin, Omer Nautra, was serving in the Israeli Defense Force and kidnapped out of his tank on Oct. 7.
“We just want him home,” Galper said. “And he’s a kid. [He is] 21. He turned 22 in captivity.”
Galper is not alone in her pain.
Wiping away a tear in a recent interview, Adina Troen-Krasnow said “It doesn’t get easier.”
In her art studio in Needham, Troen-Krasnow is creating a mosaic guitar as a tribute to her Israeli musician cousins, Debbie and Shlomi Mathais, who died protecting their 16-year-old son when Hamas terrorists attacked their home.
“Debbie took his bullet and I can’t imagine being smart enough, courageous enough,” Troen-Krasnow said. “…As she died, she fell on him and Shlomi also fell on him and that saved his life because he played dead.”
Troen-Krasnow is now honoring her cousins’ memory by keeping the spotlight on the hostages.
“The world is forgetting,” she said. “The world has forgotten.”
“Until every single person is brought home to their home country or to Israel, no one can stop fighting,” she continued. “We cannot stop fighting for their lives.”
Both Galper and Troen-Krasnow said they have hope when seeing video of some of the kidnapped people being returned.
They worry, though, if the others are still alive and if they are OK.
Now, Galper and Troen-Krasnow are among the Americans asking the US government to make sure the remaining hostages are released.
“We have heard nothing since Oct. 7,” Galper said. “We have no idea, we have no confirmation if he’s even still alive. We hope that. We pray for that.”
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