After freeing Hamas hostages
“Hamas must surrender”
By Marko Schlichting
December 7, 2023, 4:33 a.m
Gili Roman’s sister was held hostage by Hamas terrorists for 54 days. The German-Israeli has been free for a few days. In a short conversation with Markus Lanz, Gili Roman reports on what the family has experienced.
October 7, 2023 is a day that will go down in Israel’s history. This Saturday, Hamas terrorists invaded the country, murdering more than 1,200 Israelis and taking almost 240 people hostage. Their relatives wrote letters, fought and demonstrated. One of them is the educator Gili Roman. He ran a school in Israel that aimed to educate for peace, where Jews, Muslims and Christians learned together. On October 7th, his sister Yarden was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists from Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Shortly afterwards he is a guest on the ZDF talk show Markus Lanz. His family has been in close contact with the federal government in Germany and has organized demonstrations in Germany for Yarden’s release. It lasts 54 days. Then finally the news comes that lets the Roman family breathe a sigh of relief: Yarden is released. On Wednesday evening Gili Roman will be Markus Lanz’s guest again. He connected from Tel Aviv.
No sign of life for weeks
For weeks, his family didn’t know whether Yarden was still alive, reports Gili Roman. Hamas did not publish any lists of names. The International Red Cross also did not know who exactly the Hamas terrorists had in their power. It was only when the hostages were released that the family found out: Yarden was alive. It was at night, around half past two. “That’s when I found out that my sister was still alive,” says Gili Roman. “24 hours later we were able to welcome her to Israeli soil.”
35-year-old Yarden, her husband Alon and their three-year-old daughter are kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri by Hamas terrorists. On the way to the Gaza Strip they managed to escape and ran into a forest. But then Yarden realizes: She is too weak. She hands the little daughter over to her husband, who hides with the child for almost ten hours. Yarden surrenders. Her brother cannot yet tell what will happen in the next few weeks. This is too dangerous because there are still 130 hostages in the hands of the terrorists.
What he can say is: The hostages didn’t get enough to eat. It is also known that medical care for sick hostages was not guaranteed. Since the beginning of Israel’s defense measures in the Gaza Strip, this has applied to all people who are staying there, report employees of Palestinian hospitals.
Gili Roman also learned that women were said to have been sexually harassed. “My sister was lucky. She came back in relatively good condition,” he says. But she experienced bad things in these 54 days. She didn’t know that her daughter and her husband had been rescued. However, she found out via a podcast that her sister-in-law had also fallen into the hands of the Hamas terrorists. There is still no trace of her.
Roman believes: Living together is possible
Gili Roman belongs to the political left in Israel. He is still committed to a peaceful solution and wants to end the war in his homeland. But he also knows: “Hamas is a terrorist organization that wants to wipe out the Israeli state. Its goal is to kill Jews.” That’s why it’s clear: “Hamas must surrender.” He has been fighting for a compromise between Jews and Palestinians for a decade. There must be a new form of mediation. “I believe in a future in which we can all live together in this country,” says Gili Roman. But it will take a long time before this possibility can be created.
The most important thing for Gili Roman now is: “Let’s hope that all the hostages are freed so that all families can have a smile on their faces, like me.”