Bay Area Jewish community holding onto hope for hostage deal ahead of Hanukkah

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Negotiations for a hostage deal between Hamas and Israel are heating up ahead of holidays and the Bay Area Jewish community, including those with loved ones held hostage, is holding onto hope.

It's been more than 14 months since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people, and abducting around 250, including three of Pacifica resident Oren's family members.

"My thought is this is going to happen. We've all been praying for it for almost a year and a half," Oren said.

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Israel says Hamas is still holding 100 hostages, with over a third of them believed to be dead; one of them is Oren's cousin.

"Sadly Ilan is still a hostage. We know that we want him back and we think he'll come back," Oren said.

"Everyone in the Jewish community has been on edge for more than a year now waiting for our hostages to come home," said Joy Sisisky, CEO, Jewish Community and Federation Endowment Fund. "So the idea of a hostage deal is getting nearer, especially towards the holidays and the end of the year, I think everyone has their fingers and toes crossed."

The deal, according to officials involved in the mediation, would include the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, with 30 Israeli hostages to be released in the first phase, half of whom are believed to be alive.

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One man is putting up posters in San Francisco of the more than 200 hostages being held by Hamas as his cousin, his cousin's wife and their daughter are all among the kidnapped.

"My cousin Ofer was kidnapped with his daughter and son they were actually kidnapped separately in their attempt to flee the children's Sahar and Erez were returned in the very last hostage deal," said Bay Area resident, Pelinor Calderon, who is trying to hold onto hope. "We have to really be careful about what we get excited about and what we get emotional about because the situation is so raw and the emotion is so raw that it makes it very difficult to have any emotion about it."

"I think the best thing we can do is really hope for the best, pray for the best," Sisisky said. "And also make sure we're prepared for a longer fight knowing that we may not get everything we want in the first round of a hostage deal."