Calls to 'bring them home' continue for Israeli hostages 6 months after Hamas attack

ByTara Campbell KGO logo

Monday, April 8, 2024

Calls to free hostages continue 6 months after Hamas' attack on Israel

Sunday marked six months since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing more than 1,000 people and taking over 250 hostages.

LAFAYETTE, Calif. (KGO) -- Atop an overpass in Lafayette, California is a message to the Middle East: "Bring them home."

Sunday marks six months since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing more than 1,000 people and taking over 250 hostages.

"This is Yagev Buchshtab. He is my brother-in-law, and he's very dear to my heart," said Yael Nidam Kirsht, holding up a hostage poster.

Bay Area loved ones were bringing attention Sunday to the 134 hostages still held captive in Gaza.

"I think the most important thing to do is to continue to speak about the hostages. Bring them up in every conversation and raise awareness to the hostages," said Nidam Kirsht, describing every day for the past six months as a difficult one. "It's really hard to get out of bed. Every time I open my eyes, the first thing I do is check the news to see if there was a deal while I was sleeping."

MORE: UC Berkeley Jewish students successfully march without confrontation

"Whatever little bit we can do here all the way in Lafayette, California, helps," said event organizer, Yoav Harlev. "We magnify it to let a lot more people know about the hostages and hopefully join us in just shouting, yelling, asking for them to be released."

"I still remember exactly where I was and and what I was doing when I when I learned about the Oct. 7 attack," said State Senator Scott Wiener, co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. "And now we're exactly six months in. That trauma is still very real for Jews around the world, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust."

The senator joined voices calling for the return of the hostages and an end to the war. "The death and destruction in Gaza is just unfathomable. And really this war needs to end. The hostages need to come home. Hamas needs to no longer be running Gaza. And we need to find a way to have peace."

"I have to believe that they are going to come home, that they're going to be. I don't know if I'll ever be home, but they're going to come home," Harlev said.