Another holiday has passed, another birthday marked – and Tal is still not here. On the morning of Oct. 7, Tal Shoham, his wife Adi and their children Nave and Yahel were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Be'eri. Three more of our family members were brutally murdered. Tal's children, my grandchildren, were held captive along with their mother and grandmother for 50 days. They returned, but their soul and heart remained there, with their father, in Gaza.
I want to address you, the decision-makers, on behalf of Nave and Yahel who for more than a year have been imagining the moment when they will once again rest their heads, wrapped in their father's embrace. These amazing children, despite the hell they went through, haven't lost hope and faith. But still, they experience so many disappointments and pain. As another holiday passes, another birthday is marked, another season changes – and daddy is still not here.
A few days ago, Yahel heard a man's voice outside the door, and with heartbreaking innocence asked, "Is that daddy? Did daddy come back?" Do you understand? Their father is within reach from here, or more accurately – within a decision's reach from here.
My heart breaks anew each time and it becomes impossible to breathe seeing two children, just 9 and 4 years old, who wake up at night asking for him, who miss him, who see so many fathers around them, but not their own father.
The tension and anxiety grow with time, following like a heavy shadow. They know what he's going through, they were there – this isn't a burden children should bear, it's not logical, it's not fair, it must end.
Meanwhile, members of the Knesset and government argue among themselves about their pound of flesh, while the hostages are starving to death. What would happen here, and how would the whole world be amazed to see, if the state of Israel would again show what makes it unique – "Everyone matters and no one is left behind!"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset plenum – the urgent and important victory isn't in Lebanon and at the Hermon peak, it's in the south. Without a clear arrangement, all the hostages won't return home. This isn't a political matter, it's a matter of values, of lives, and of families asking for just one thing – to bring their loved ones back. And time is running out.
Stop the nightmare of uncertainty, bring my child back, bring the father of my grandchildren home. Bring all 100 hostages home. Bring all of Israel home – to a world of sanity.
Gilad Korngold is the father of Tal Shoham, who is held hostage in Gaza.
