'I'm not ready to give up hope,' said the hostages who remain in Gaza

[geraldo fransisco]

"She doesn't deserve to wait for the next deal just because she isn't someone's mother or grandmother," Or Neko Maymon comments in Hebrew on Facebook.

Or is referring to his partner's sister, 27-year-old street artist and art student Inbar Haiman.

Inbar was abducted by Hamas at the Supernova music festival in Israel on October 7, and was later shown with blood on her face in a hostage video distributed on social media.

She is one of 16 women featured on bustlingnews.com. Following a seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Verify has identified as still being held captive in Gaza. During the cease-fire, Hamas agreed to release 110 hostages (including 78 women and children) in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

The Israeli emphasis on winning the release of female hostages has both raised and crushed hopes for the relatives of the women who remain imprisoned.

Inbar's friends and family have been lobbying for her freedom since her kidnapping, using the hashtag #FreePink, a reference to her street artist persona.

"I'm really not ready for you to take away my hope of seeing Inbar return," Or said three days ago in another post.

In November, Inbar's boyfriend, 24-year-old Noam Alon, slept for ten days in front of Tel Aviv's major military headquarters, demanding that the Israeli government do more to ensure Inbar's release.

Bustlingnews.com has confirmed that 115 of the 237 people taken captive by Hamas and five other armed Palestinian organizations during the 7 October raids are still in Gaza. According to an Israeli government spokesman, 135 people are still held captive. Because there is no official list of captives, the bustlingnews.com has had to confirm names.

There are at least 16 women and 95 men among the remaining hostages. This group comprises French-Mexican Orión Hernández Radoux, the lover of Shani Louk, 22, who was murdered after being kidnapped from the Supernova music event.

Soon after the incident, a video of a young woman's body being paraded through the streets began to circulate widely on social media. Shani's family recognized her in the footage thanks to her dreadlocks and unusual tattoos.

Shani's mother, Ricarda, stated at the end of October that the Israeli military had informed her that a fragment of her daughter's skull bone had been discovered. Shani's body has yet to be found.

Orión, her partner in captivity, turned 31 in November.

"Today is Orión's birthday," family friend Gabriel De la Fuente posted in Spanish on Facebook, "already a month since his kidnapping, may God return you well."

The Sun tabloid reports that threatening messages written in Arabic were transmitted from Orión's phone while he was at the festival.

His friends and family pray together every night at 7 p.m. in a WhatsApp group set up to help them encourage one another.

"Only by uniting together in prayer will we provide the spiritual strength and support that your soul needs right now, wherever it may be," he adds.

Families who are waiting for loved ones to return home have been a great source of comfort for one another, according to Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat has been held captive since October 7.

"We became like a really large family of families," he told bustlingnews.com. "It feels as though, when their relatives are getting released, so are mine."

Carmel, a 39-year-old Tel Aviv occupational therapist, had been visiting her parents in Be'eri on October 7.

Yarden Roman-Gat, her sister-in-law, was released by Hamas on Wednesday and reunited with her husband and three-year-old daughter.

Gil recalls about Yarden, "I wasn't even sure she was alive until I saw her."

Gil explains that when the 36-year-old German-Israeli, her husband, and their daughter were apprehended, they managed to escape from the gunmen's car at the Gaza-Israel border.

The family then started fleeing while being shot at. Yarden, realizing she couldn't run quickly enough, submitted and delivered her daughter to her husband, allowing the others to flee.

"We were very, very happy to see her," Gil says.

But now that the ceasefire has ended, Gil is growing increasingly concerned about his cousin Carmel, who has yet to return home.

"We were very, very worried by the fact that the truce is ended," Gil said. "I'm personally very worried for her."

Many people whose loved ones are still being held hostage in Gaza have taken to social media to advocate for their release, discuss their emotions, and offer support to one another in their anguish.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin's mother has been sharing videos of herself talking about her son on his family's Bring Hersh Home Facebook page.

"I wanted to share with you what happened last night when I woke up at 2:13 in the morning," Rachel informed the Facebook page's 17,000 followers on Wednesday. "I started to think about how much pain Hersh must be in."

Hersh lost part of his arm in a grenade explosion before being kidnapped, according to eyewitnesses Rachel spoke with.

According to his family, the 23-year-old from California was observed by witnesses being loaded onto a truck alongside others who were removed from the Supernova celebration. According to witnesses, he was gravely hurt and unconscious, and his last known phone position put him on the Gaza border.

"It is really important that we get him home so that he can start the process of learning how to live his life in a very different way than he ever lived it before," Rachel says in one of her most recent films.

"It's just another reason why we are tenaciously and tirelessly fighting for him to come home."