‘Time to alleviate suffering’, says daughter of Israeli hostage – Channel 4 News
19m
15 Jan 2025

‘Time to alleviate suffering’, says daughter of Israeli hostage

Europe Editor and Presenter

We spoke to Sharone Lifschitz, whose elderly father is still being held hostage in Gaza, her mother was freed after two weeks in captivity.

Matt Frei: Sharone, how do you feel?

Sharone Lifschitz: Cautious. Almost speechless, almost. I haven’t prepared for a yes. We have gone through so long.

Matt Frei: Because you’ve been here before as well, haven’t you, with deals that you thought were going to happen, and they didn’t happen?

Sharone Lifschitz: Exactly.

Matt Frei: It seems like this one is going to happen?

Sharone Lifschitz: It has been agreed. It hasn’t been agreed since the last deal that fell through. And that is the most important thing that we need to make sure that it happens, that the first stage leads to the second stage and that it doesn’t collapse halfway.

Matt Frei: And we can see some pictures now of your mother and father. Your mother, as we said earlier, was released after two weeks. I’ll ask you about her in a minute. But your father is still in Gaza. Do you actually know, and this is a difficult question, but do you know whether he’s alive?

Sharone Lifschitz: No, we don’t know. We do not know. He is 84. He wasn’t in great health. It would take a bit of a miracle for him to survive in these conditions. But we didn’t believe my mum would come back alive either. We have to hold on to the hope. And I have to prepare myself to at least knowing.

Matt Frei: Must be so difficult to be here tonight on what could be a  night of celebration or just a night of knowing.

Sharone Lifschitz: I think above all, there are 98 hostages. Out of them, we know we have a lot of funerals coming. But we also know that some of them will be reunited with their families and there’s nothing more we can ask for at this point. I think it’s time for a ceasefire. It’s time to withdraw from Gaza. It’s time to alleviate the suffering on both sides and in Gaza, too.

Matt Frei: Should this day that we’re experiencing now have happened a long time before?

Sharone Lifschitz: Absolutely. It could have happened. [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir just came out and said that he delayed the deal and did everything he could to stop the deal.

Matt Frei: So this is about Israeli politics delaying the return of your father and others?

Sharone Lifschitz: That’s what he claimed. That’s what that minister claimed. I don’t think Hamas have done everything they could in order to save their own people, unfortunately. They’ve been really harsh to their own people. And I think above all, we have to at the moment concentrate on the fact that a deal is signed, to thank the outgoing administration and the incoming administration in the States for working together, for not waiting until Trump gets into office, but putting it as a deadline. Deadline has seemed to have worked, brought about a ceasefire, not a ceasefire yet, but it’s coming, and a deal. May it be the start of a better place for all the people of the region.

Matt Frei: Let me ask you about your mother. She was held in captivity for two weeks, and I’m not sure if we have pictures of her being released back in November. How is she doing and how is it like for her to adjust to ‘normality’ without her husband?

Sharone Lifschitz: It’s really tough. She says sometimes she just starts speaking to him. She lost her home, everything that she ever owned. She lost so many good friends. She lives not where she lived for the last 65 years. She’s also really full of life and really believes in the living. I think she finds it’s really hard, but at the same time so much has happened. She holds on to life.

Matt Frei: And finally, a difficult question as well. Do you think you can live side by side with the Palestinians after this?

Sharone Lifschitz: Yes. There’s seven million Jews and seven million Palestinians living in that region. We need to find a way.

Matt Frei: You have to live with each other, that’s the neighbourhood.

Sharone Lifschitz: We need to find a way. I think this is terrible. I think if anything we should do now is make sure this is the worst of it.