100 days into Israel-Hamas war, families continue begging for release of hostage loved ones
NEW YORK -- The Israel-Hamas war is now in its 100th day.
On Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, vowing to keep fighting, despite growing uncertainty about the outcome and international alarm about the rising death toll.
Families of hostages rallied in Tel Aviv and Manhattan, demanding governments worldwide "bring them home." CBS New York spoke with some of those family members.
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Two families were here to keep the spotlight on their loved ones. Yair Moses said the last sign of life from his dad was when he was in a hostage video last month. Moses said it has been 100 days of living hell.
"In this movie, he looks very thin, very exhausted. He looks like, I think, 10 years older," Moses said.
It is the last image Moses now has of his 79-year-old dad, Gadi. The father and grandfather, a worldwide renown potato farmer, was taken from Kibbutz Nir on Oct. 7.
Yair's mother was released from captivity in November.
"My mother, all the time she was there she was underground," Moses said. "Not one of the released hostages saw him."
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But released hostages did tell the family of 39-year-old Carmel Gat they saw her.
"People that were with her told us she helped them mentally. She taught them yoga meditation," relative Gili Roman said.
They're holding on hope she has managed to do this for herself. Her relatives said she was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri and saw her mother murdered.
"We heard she having rough experiences in captivity and we are so worried about her," Roman said. "We just know that it was ... it was abusive."
"People have to understand that the longer it takes, the harder it's going to be," Maya Roman said. "There's a certain point where you just feel like we can't take it anymore. It has been 100 days. How much longer are we expected to sit and wait?"
The anxiety is unbearable. At a Sunday morning rally in Central Park to "bring them home," a Tenafly, New Jersey, mom spoke of her son, 19-year-old Edan Alexander, who was kidnapped while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces.
"I am begging to Biden and the American government. Please bring my son home," Yael Alexander said. "Edan, I'm hoping you feel the love and light that we are all sending to you in the darkness. We love you, our sweet, sweet boy."
A delegation of hostage families will travel from New York to Washington to Los Angeles in the next few weeks to keep their loved ones' stories alive.
"What happened on Oct. 7 is something against humanity. It's not something about Israel. It's not something about the Jewish people. It's against humanity. People need to be released," Moses said.
The war already is the longest and deadliest between Israel and Hamas. Nearly 24,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.