‘You Are Next!’ Man Whose Brother Was Taken Hostage By Hamas Warns U.S. and Europe During ‘Harrowing’ Press Conference
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) held a press conference with family members of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza to mark 30 days since hundreds were kidnapped during the devastating Oct. 7th attack on Israel that killed some 1,500 people, mostly civilians.
“It was a harrowing display of just some of the personal anguish that persists 30 days after that horrific attack by Hamas in Israel,” began NBC News’s Sahil Kapur, adding:
We heard from family members of multiple hostages standing with Hamas leaders, fighting back tears as they told their stories and pleaded with the US government for help. Let’s hear from two of them. One of them was a mother. You see her on the screen there, Doris Liber, whose son Guy was kidnapped. She said every day feels like an eternity to her. Another Yonatan Lulu-Shamariz, whose brother Alon was kidnapped and taken. Let’s hear what they had to say.
“This is Guy, okay? His best friend is a hostage, too. This is Almog,” said Liber, holding up a photo of her son and his best friend.
“And this is a wake-up call not only for Israel, not only for the Jewish community. This is a wake-up call for all. All of you here. All of America. All of Europe. You are next. You are next!” said Lulu-Shamariz.
“And we should do everything we can to stop these atrocities,” he added.
“Now, the Israeli government has indicated that there can be no ceasefire while those 240 hostages continue to be held by Hamas. And here on Capitol Hill, there continues to be a debate. Congress is still grappling over how to approve President Biden’s request of $14.3 billion in aid to Israel,” Kapur reported, noting:
The House last week passed mostly along party lines that aid paired with I.R.S. cuts that Democrats consider a poison pill. The Senate is eyeing a larger national security package that includes foreign aid that’s still being developed. Still unclear where that goes is as we speak, as all of this happens, Chris, the fate of U.S. aid to Israel remains up in the air.
MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing then turned to foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez in Tel Aviv to discuss how Israel marked the day.
“And Chris, one of the things we’ve heard speaking to the families of the hostages over the last month is just these mixed emotions when it comes to knowing what’s going on inside Gaza, because there have been a small number of hostage videos, people speaking, we assume, under duress from Hamas,” Sanchez replied, adding:
In one case, there’s a woman criticizing Prime Minister Netanyahu. In another case, there was a young woman who we saw being treated for injuries she sustained. And the families of people who have had a glimpse of their loved ones in hostage in captivity will tell you that on the one hand, it is just pure agony to see the people they love most in the world being held under these conditions. And at the same time, there is just waves and waves of relief to know that they are alive, to know that at least from the outside, they appear to be largely and physically in good shape.
And the families who have yet to hear anything are the ones in the deepest, deepest agony because they just don’t know. These hostages have a range of medical conditions. There is one young man who was taken from the music festival and the last image his parents saw of him, they saw that one of his arms had been blown off by a Hamas grenade. And they have no idea whether he’s alive, whether he’s dead, how he’s doing. So it has just been unimaginable for these families.
Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.
