class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>
Guy Iluz (26) actually just wanted to celebrate with his friends. Enjoy trance and yoga at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, a music festival in southern Israel. But at dawn, Hamas terrorists came, killed Guy’s friends and shot the young Israeli.
While on the run, he contacts his parents, who live separately. “Guy called me first,” says his mother Doris Liber (56) in Geneva. “He didn’t tell me what was going on. He didn’t want me to worry.” Then he called his father. Doris Liber: “Later, the three of us talked on the phone. We didn’t talk much because Guy’s father told him not to say anything, otherwise the terrorists would hear him.”
Part of the telephone conversation has been published on the internet. “Daddy, I love you,” Guy says in Hebrew. “I’m between Kibbutz Re’im and Kibbutz Nir Am. I’m hiding behind a tree.” The father wants to know: “Do you see terrorists?” Guy’s answer is: “Yes. There are no security forces here.”
Guy’s mother reports that the Hamas terrorists then shot Guy. “He could no longer bandage the open wound with a shirt. The emergency call then told him to make it into a ball and stop the bleeding.
During the last telephone conversation, the mother promises her son: “I will come and get you.” At this point, she doesn’t know that Hamas killed about 260 people at the festival site – and kidnapped as many as they could into Gaza. Ultimately there are more than 200.
Israel’s 9/11
Since October 7, the Israeli attacks of 9/11, Doris Liber has been in a state of emergency. She fears for the life of her only son.
Two of his friends managed to get to safety; one, like Guy, is missing, the others have been massacred by the Islamists. “The last two weeks in Israel, I only left the house for funerals,” the mother says. She expected a visit from the authorities every day. “When someone dies, the police come with a social worker. So far no one has come to me. That gives me hope. But there remains great uncertainty.”
In recent days, her “emotional roller coaster ride” has gotten worse, as Liber admits. Because suddenly a Hamas propaganda video appeared. In it, an Islamist claims that Guy was killed by Israeli bombs in the Gaza Strip. There is no official confirmation. And Israeli authorities encouraged her. There are many indications that her son is still alive. “I don’t know what psychological game Hamas is playing right now. I just want my son back.”
Heap? Fear? To wait? Doris Liber is convinced that her son will only be returned to her with international help and international pressure. That is why she traveled to Geneva together with relatives of other hostages. Their mission: to wake up the world so that Hamas gives in and releases the hostages.
Doris Liber met on Friday with Mirjana Spoljaric Egger (51), president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She was also able to speak with UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk (58). Liber’s message was as simple as it was overwhelming: “Do what you can do. Bring my son back.” She hears no news about how Guy is doing in Switzerland.
The ICRC has no access to the hostages
In Geneva, the city of human rights and diplomacy, Doris Liber encounters the depths of power politics. The ICRC can only care for the hostages if both sides in the conflict agree. And: It still has no access to the abductees.
The UN Human Rights Commissioner can only take action if Israel asks him to do so. But the relationship between Jerusalem and the United Nations is extremely bad because of the many anti-Israel resolutions of the international community.
Doris Liber welcomes journalists to an office in Geneva, not far from the United Nations headquarters. Media professionals from Switzerland, but also from other countries such as Mexico, are interested in the fate of the many hostages, of which her son Guy is only one.
A little bit of hope
On Friday evening she heard that two abductees with American passports had been released. “This is a ray of hope. But we have to keep up the pressure so that the others are released as quickly as possible. Nationality should not play a role. These are innocent people.”
The mother doesn’t want to talk about politics. “This is not about war, but about civilians. They need medical attention and must be released immediately.”
Liber talks about her son, who lived for music. “He has been playing guitar since he was nine years old. He made the sound for musicians like Shalom Hanoch.” Hanoch (77) is considered the father of Israeli rock.
Doris Liber shows a video that the family recorded to draw attention to Guy’s fate. The movie makes you cry, but Guy’s mother has no tears: “I don’t know what to feel. My life suddenly changed. There’s a before and an after.”
She looks tired and desperate now. “If I laugh, it’s only because I don’t understand what’s going on.”
What’s holding her back these days? Doris Liber dodges the question. She repeats the promise she made to her son: “I will come get you.”
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
