(NewsNation) — Hamas on Saturday released a video appearing to show two hostages who have been held in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“Saturday evening here in Israel was a very painful evening for our family,” Moshe Lavi, the brother-in-law of Omri Miran, 47, one of the hostages in the video, told “NewsNation Now.” “But at the same time, it also gave us a glimmer of hope.”
In the video, Miran and the other hostage, 64-year-old Keith Siegel, an American Israeli, speak in front of an empty background, sending their love to their families and asking to be released.
Lavi said the light in the now-frail Miran’s eyes was gone, and his smile was no longer there.
“But at the same time, we’re happy to see him alive, most likely … in the last few days as the video indicates,” Lavi said. “And so it gives us the motivation to continue advocating with our own government, to continue advocating worldwide as we have throughout the past nearly seven months, and to hope that we can bring Omri home.”
While it has been hard for the family without Miran, Lavi said his sister has been staying strong and bringing up the couple’s two daughters “despite the trauma of Oct. 7,” when Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostage. In response, Israel launched an assault on Gaza that has resulted in widespread devastation and killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
“I equate (my sister) to Penelope, who never lost hope, always kept hope, despite all the years that went by without Odysseus,” Lavi said. “That is also my sister, an inspirational woman, and she’s going to keep fighting until Omri’s home.”
Reuters contributed to this story.