Brighton relative of Hamas hostage ‘filled with trepidation’ as ceasefire takes effect

The Brighton relative of an Israeli hostage held by Hamas said that he was “filled with trepidation but also optimism” as the Gaza ceasefire took effect today (Sunday 19 January).

Hamas has promised to release 33 of the remaining 98 hostages taken on Saturday 7 October 2023 over the next six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Adam Ma’anit, who lives in Brighton, said that his cousin Tsachi Idan was on the list of hostages who could be released in the opening phase of the truce.

Mr Idan is on the list of 33 hostages to be freed in the first stage of the hostage-ceasefire deal, having been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. His 18-year-old daughter Mayaan was murdered in front of him.

Mr Ma’anit, 51, spoke of his cautious hope for his cousin’s safe return, telling the PA news agency: “I think I’m feeling every spectrum of human emotion all at once in the sense that I am incredibly anxious, filled with trepidation but also optimism.

“But I can’t allow myself to be overly invested in that optimism because we’ve been here before where a deal seemed imminent and things were looking up and our hopes and dreams and desires were about to be coming true and our loved ones returned to us.

“And then we would have them crashed down into the reality of collapsed negotiations and the grim prospect of months more uncertainty.

“So I think it’s important to be sanguine about the deal and realise that it could potentially happen but not to be overly invested in it so much that we hurt ourselves mentally.”

Mr Idan, who will be 51 in April, saw his eldest daughter murdered before he was taken hostage by Hamas more than 15 months ago.

The family have hope that he is still alive although Mr Ma’anit told PA that Hamas had said that he was dead in a video published last January.

Mr Ma’anit said: “There’s no intelligence to say that he’s dead, let’s put it that way, other than Hamas claiming he is without showing us any evidence of it.

“And so, since January 2024, we’ve been operating under the assumption, perhaps naively, perhaps stubbornly, perhaps overly optimistically, but doggedly so that he’s still alive. We still hope that’s the case.”

The ceasefire was approved by Israel’s cabinet early yesterday morning after weeks of talks in Qatar.

Israel’s justice ministry published a list of more than 700 prisoners who are to be freed in the deal’s first phase and said that the release would not begin before 4pm local time today.