The overflow audience at the Israel Diamond Exchange held its breath as Danielle Aloni told the horrifying story of how she was kidnapped at gunpoint from her sister’s home at Kibbutz Nir Oz, together with her six-year-old daughter, Emilia, taken to Gaza and held hostage underground in Hamas tunnels for 50 days. Conditions were dreadful – air, light, food and sanitation severely limited, and they were watched over by armed Hamas guards 24/7.
Danielle, as well as several families of hostages still held by Hamas, were guests of the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) today at a special event held by the bourse to express solidarity, raise awareness and call for the immediate release of the remaining 136 hostages still held in the depths of Hamas tunnels in Gaza.
The event, initiated and organized by Meira Weissberg, Israel Diamond Exchange board member in charge of public affairs, in coordination with the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, was attended by scores of bourse members. She said that although the world has gone back to living their lives, the time to save the hostages is running out.
The Diamond Exchange has a personal connection to the tragic events that took place in Israel on October 7, 2023. Two of the hostages are members of the Israel Diamond Exchange family: 20-year-old Edan Alexander, a soldier taken hostage from his post, and 80-year-old Yoram Metzger, kidnapped from his kibbutz, are the son and father of bourse members. The Exchange lost nine family members in the Hamas attack and the subsequent war in Gaza.
IDE President Boaz Moldawsky said that the event today was held to express support for the families of those remaining hostages, to honor their spirit and strength, and to raise funds and awareness for their cause.
Guests at the event were Doron Sachser, of Kibbutz Hatzor, whose family “adopted” Edan Alexander as a lone soldier when he arrived in Israel from Tenafly, New Jersey and Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of Edan Alexander and wife of bourse member Baruch Ben Baruch. Both spoke of their relentless efforts to keep awareness of the plight of the hostages, and especially Edan, in the public eye.
As Danielle Aloni said, “Hamas continues to hold in captivity the injured, the aged, the ill and there is no medical care. We must rescue the remaining hostages from the Hamas hell before it is too late.”
