Agreement in Gaza will free 3 Portuguese hostages

They lost family members and have been held hostage by Hamas since October 7, 2023. They are expected to be released on Sunday.

The ceasefire approved by Hamas and Israel that arrived this week provides for the release of 33 hostages by the Palestinian group. 3 of them have Portuguese nationality.

Or Levy and his wife, Eynav Levy, had just arrived at the Supernova festival when Hamas invaded the space in what was the attack that reignited the 15-month war with Israel.

The couple has a son, Almog Levy, who lives with his grandparents.

Or Levy’s wife died during the attackconsidered the deadliest civil massacre in Israel’s history, says , but the Portuguese with dual nationality, in his 30s, was captured and taken to Gaza by the terrorist group, who recorded a video of himself on the same day.

Already Ofer Calderon53 years old, also a victim of the Hamas attack held hostage by the group, applied for Portuguese nationality in September 2021. The process was expedited and nationality was granted by Portugal after Ofer was captured. This is because the possibility of release of hostages with dual nationalitywhich ended up not happening.

Ofer had requested nationality because he was sepharditename given to Jews descended from the ancient and traditional Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula.

His two sons, Sahar and Erez, had also been kidnapped, and were eventually released at the end of November 2023.

Tashi If He is in his 40s, has Portuguese nationality and his wife, Gali, has already told international channels, such as .

The family, with four children, was not even at the music festival that was the target of the attack. They were at home when Hamas invaded. The terrorist group killed the family’s eldest daughter, Maayan, who was 18 years old.

So they kidnapped the father. The mother describes everything:

“Tsachi grabbed the door and didn’t let them open it,” he tells the BBC. “There was no lock and the kids were screaming and there was crazy chaos inside the room. Maayan saw this [os terroristas] They had managed to open the door just a little. And then he jumped up and helped Tsachi grab the door.”

“They were shouting ‘let’s not shoot’, and then they shot. Tsachi shouted ‘who got hit, who got hit? And it was Maayan. She fell next to him, and then Hamas was able to open the door.”

“And Tsachi is devastated. He saw his daughter die, he saw her get shot in the head and die next to him. His daughter who had just celebrated her 18th birthday. The house is full of balloons, congratulations and… and blood”, says the mother.

As they took her husband away, the youngest daughter screamed for her father. The terrorists’ promise was: “He will come back, he will come back.” 15 months later, he must return home.