AJC Hosts Families of Hostages Held by Hamas

On December 6, AJC Transatlantic Institute in cooperation with the European Center for Law and Justice, falicitated a meeting with relatives of three Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, in the European Parliament, hosted by MEP Andrey Kovatchev (EPP, Bulgaria). The next day, AJC TAI hosted the families in its offices for a meeting with EU diplomats from nine countries. 

The siblings of the hostages attending the events were: Yamit Ashkenazi, sister of Doron Steinbrecher, Liran Berman, brother of twins Ziv and Gali Berman, and Ido and Yonatan Lulu Shamriz, the brothers of Alon Shamriz. All hostages were kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7. 

The four relatives spoke about how they experienced the Hamas attack on October 7 and explained how they learned that their loved ones had been captured. MEP Assita Kanko (ECR, Belgium) who attended the event in the European Parliament later referred to her meeting with hostage families plenary speech. Furthermore, parliamentarians and diplomats were surprised to hear about the frustration the relatives of hostages felt about international organizations, especially the Red Cross. 

Sadly AJC learned on December 15 that Alon Shamriz had been accidentally killed by the IDF. Doron Steinbrecher, Ziv Berman and Gali Berman are still in Hamas captivity.