HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – It’s been 500 days and counting.
Omri Lifshitz doesn’t know if his father is dead or alive.
“Chances are really slim he’ll be alive,” Lifshitz said.
His elderly parents were kidnapped from their home by Hamas during the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel over a year ago.
“They went to sleep in the safe room and then they started shooting,” Lifshitz said.
The terrorists separated his parents.
“My mother was in the tunnel of Hamas,” Lifshitz said. “My father was taken by Islamic Jihad and they didn’t know anything about each other”
His mother was later released. His father remains held hostage.
“We are really afraid,” Lifshitz said.
On Thursday night, Lifshitz was one of a handful of hostage family members invited to Temple Beth El in Hollywood for support.
Members stood with them as they waited for another round of hostages expected to be released on Saturday.
“It’s tough but we cannot stop fighting,” Lifshitz said.
Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the consul-general of Israel in Miami, hosted the families.
He said the goal was “to meet the community, to meet the media to make sure that the memory and the story of their loved ones is not diminished.”