When the Israeli hostage turns 48, his wife waits for the blue tick on her news
When Omri Miran finally opens his WhatsApp account, he will receive a series of messages.
Photos of his daughter. The meditation of his wife Lishay lying in bed late at night. A snapshot of Israel’s family life lasted for 18 painful months without him.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas gunmen began sending messages three weeks after they snatched Omri from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
She gave the chat notes to OMRI. She lost the number of messages sent.
She wrote at the end of October 2023: “My lover, there are many people who need to meet.”
“Awesome people who helped me. Strangers became as close as possible.”
Three and a half months later, she posted the news about the couple’s eldest daughter.
“Roni said good night to you in the window every night. She said you didn’t hear her voice, she couldn’t see you…You’ve been really disappointed in your life and she had a hard time coping with your absence.”
The couple’s daughter is no longer a baby [Family handout]
Friday is Omri’s birthday. He was imprisoned the second one. When he turns 48, somewhere in the Gaza Tunnel, Lis will write again, with the story of two daughters who were still babies the last time they met them.
The released hostage said that Omri was still alive last July. Lishay’s belief in her husband’s survival seems unshakable, but it was the hardest time of the year. Not only Omri’s birthday, but it was the eve of Pesach (Pasch), when Jews celebrated the biblical story of Exodus, in which Moses led their ancestors away from Egypt’s slavery.
“You know, Pesach is a free vacation,” Lisha said, as we met in the park near Madame Tel Aviv Hostage Square.
“I don’t have freedom. I don’t think anyone in Israel feels free.”
In the square itself, Omri’s birthday is marked on Friday.
The poster demanding his release once listed the hostages as 46 years old. Then at 47 years old.
Omri’s father Danny stood out and wrote 48.
Nearby, preparations for the symbol Passover or ritual feast are underway.
A long table is being set up, and of the remaining 59 hostages are still in Gaza (24 people are believed to be alive).
The square was filled with symbols: models of the Gaza tunnel, the tent represents the Nova Music Festival, with hundreds of people killed.
In addition to supporting the family’s commodity stalls and “Virtual Reality Hostage Experiences,” it is part of a collective effort to bring the dilemma of disappearance in the public eye and maintain political pressure on the Israeli government.
Lishay and her daughter have not yet returned to the house where the family life was blown out 18 months ago when the trauma blows.
Lishay and the couple’s daughter have not yet returned to the family home near the Gaza border – the family in this photo is seen there together [Family handout]
But Lishay said she returned to Nahal Oz from time to time to date her husband.
Kibbutz is only 700m away from the border with Gaza. She can get close to Omri.
“I can feel him there,” she said. “I can talk to him.”
After a ceasefire came into effect in mid-January, the border was quiet. Lishay allowed herself to hope, even though she knew Omri’s age meant he wouldn’t be one of the first people to be released.
But the ceasefire ended in just two months. Now, the border areas (called “Gazababa” by Israelis) respond to the voice of war again, rekindling the deepest fears of all hostage families.
“I’m scared,” she said of her recent trip.
Lishay was careful not to condemn her government like some hostage families. But she said she was “really angry” when she realized the war was back.
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Hungary’s Viktor Orban last week, he posted that the two discussed “Hungarian hostages”, a reference to Omali’s dual Israeli Hengaria citizenship.
For lishay, it thorns.
“I’m really hard to see this,” she said. “Omri has a name. He’s not just a hostage.”
In a Passover message sent on Friday, Netanyahu once again promised that the hostages would return and that Israel’s enemies would be defeated.
Recently, there has been a topic of another ceasefire agreement, but that is not imminent.
“The last thing happened,” Lishay said.
For now, it seems that the WhatsApp message she gave OMRI is destined to remain unopened.
But that didn’t stop her from looking for the gray ticking that turned blue.
“I know it will happen one day.”
