Relatives of Israeli hostages and supporters protest for their release at a beach in Tel Aviv, marking 600 days of the hostages' captivity, May 28, 2025. (Photo by Erik Marmor/Flash90)
The Berman twins were seized from Kfar Aza during the Oct. 7 pogrom; Yosef-Chaim was taken from Nova.
Three names, three candles that should be at home tonight: the Berman twins, Gali and Ziv of Kfar Aza, marking 28, and Yosef-Chaim Ohana, abducted from the Nova music festival, marking 25—all for the second time in Hamas captivity.
Their families and the Hostages Forum staged small gestures of normal life—tables set, photos, messages—so the world doesn’t move on.
“My princes… almost two years you’re not with us,” their mother Talya recorded for the twins, hoping her voice reaches them underground.
In Kfar Aza, friends laid out a birthday table for Gali and Ziv, a quiet rebuke to the terrorists who tore them from their homes and to the cowardice of hiding behind civilians and tunnels.
The forum amplified the family’s plea, framing this day as what it is: a second birthday in “hell.”
For Yosef-Chaim, whose bright, easy smile has become a symbol on posters and rallies, his father Avi Ohana sent a message of stubborn love—“the prayers strengthen us”—and recounted his son’s bravery when the massacre began.
Yosef-Chaim Ohana
Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the Forum, and supporters worldwide posted tributes to keep his name—and the demand—alive.
This is not just about three birthdays. Forty-eight hostages remain in Gaza; at least 26 have been declared dead by Israeli authorities. No Red Cross access. No proof of medical care. No law, only tunnels.
That is the baseline reality against which families measure every headline.
The Berman twins were seized from Kfar Aza during the Oct. 7 pogrom; Yosef-Chaim was taken from Nova—ordinary Israelis targeted because Hamas murders and kidnaps civilians as strategy, then bargains with their lives.
The bigger picture is shifting: diplomatic shockwaves after this week’s strike on Hamas’s leaders in Doha jolted the talks again, and families fear gamesmanship will outpace urgency.
Whether mediation pauses or resumes on paper, the only metric that matters is who comes home breathing.
Until then, these birthdays are not “events” but evidence—of Hamas’s ongoing crime and of Israel’s obligation to bring every hostage back, by pressure, by deal, or by daring rescue when intelligence allows.
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