Israeli kibbutz members call for hostage release deal

KFAR AZA, Israel — Members of a devastated kibbutz in southern Israel visited the shells of their destroyed homes nearly four months after the Hamas attack.

Those who gathered in Kfar Aza on Monday, including a woman who was released from captivity and family members of hostages still held in Gaza, called for a cease-fire deal to return their loved ones.

Amit Soussana, who was held hostage for 55 days in Gaza, stood outside her roofless home on Monday and recalled how she hid for three hours as Hamas terrorists rampaged through her community. Eventually, the attackers lobbed a grenade into her living room to force her out.

Security footage from the kibbutz captured her struggling against her attackers before a group of seven eventually subdued her.

The wide-ranging Hamas-led terrorist attack into southern Israel killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and led to the capture of around 250. Soussana was among more than 100 who were released in November in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

In the first weeks of her captivity, she says her ankles were chained and she was held in complete darkness. She says the guards “abused me and the other hostages” and held them deep underground in a tunnel with very little food.

Of the 37 young people living in her neighborhood, 12 were killed, and seven were kidnapped. Two of Soussana’s neighbors, Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim, managed to escape their captors but were mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers in December.

Relatives of those still held in Gaza have staged mounting protests calling for another cease-fire and exchange.

Liran Berman’s twin brothers, Gali and Ziv, 26, are among those still being held in Gaza.

“We see that when there’s a deal, hostages return, and in between, when there isn’t, only bodies come back,” he said.