Needham man with 5 relatives held hostage by Hamas pushes for immediate release
NEEDHAM - President Biden spoke for more than an hour Friday with families of Americans believed to be held hostage by Hamas.
The hostages include five relatives of Jason Greenberg of Needham. He was staying north of Tel Aviv with his father last Saturday when Hamas attacked Israel. He convinced his father who lives there to evacuate quickly.
"We were seeing rockets being intercepted by Iron Dome interceptors," Greenberg told WBZ-TV Friday. "We found a flight, one of the last flights out of the country to Rome then found a flight to Boston after that."
The day of the attack, Greenberg was supposed to visit his cousins who live about a half-mile from the border of Gaza, but they lost communication. Now five members of his family, ranging from 13 to 80-years-old, are confirmed to have been kidnapped by Hamas.
"My cousins went to their bomb shelter within their house," Greenberg said. "Hamas threw in smoke grenades and smoked them out and captured them from there."
His sister, Abbey Onn, lives in Israel and is advocating for families like theirs who are missing loved ones. Onn held a news conference after meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday. She was scheduled to speak with President Biden over Zoom Friday.
"She is advocating, as I am, for the immediate release of these hostages by Hamas, and doing so on behalf of the Israeli families. I'm trying to do the same thing here," Greenberg told WBZ.
He hopes to support others in the Jewish community as he processes the events of last week, and helps his father get settled in Needham.
"I want to stand with the families who have loved ones there unaccounted for in Israel and there are many Jewish communities throughout Massachusetts and the rest of the country. I hope we can all stand together and support and provide any type of advocacy that we can for those who are hurting right now over there and have to endure this while the war is waged," Greenberg said.