POLICY

Fernández spoke with relatives of hostages in Israel and told them that he is working on their release

From China, the President conveyed to the relatives of the missing that efforts are being made to facilitate channels of dialogue with the Hamas group. "We want their relatives to appear, to return alive, and to end this terrible nightmare they are living," he said.

  • 23/10/2023 • 17:50

President Alberto Fernández spoke this Sunday from China with relatives of Argentines who were kidnapped by Hamas in Israel and, after listening to the requests for help, he remarked in a video conference that "the entire Argentine Government is working" for the release of the hostages, with the goal of them "returning safely to their homes." The communication via the Zoom platform, which lasted 25 minutes and whose content can be seen on the JAI radio website (www.radiojai.com), contains stories from the hostages' relatives and even a section in which the President reveals his emotion as he expresses the wish that the kidnapped people be released. From the city of Shanghai, Fernández said that, according to the information the Government has, Hamas has kidnapped 16 Argentine men and women. In the conversation, some of the relatives asked the head of state to appeal to diplomatic relations with countries like Qatar and Egypt to mediate in the discovery and recovery of the kidnapped Argentines. Pablo Roitman, son of Ofelia Roitman, a resident of the Nir Oz kibbutz, adjacent to the Gaza Strip, reported in the Zoom exchange that "more than 100 Hamas terrorists" entered his community, who "massacred and burned alive and kidnapped more than 110 people". Roitman also clarified that in that community "two brothers from the Cuneo family were also kidnapped, along with their partners and their two two-year-old children." Then Dalia Cusnir said that her husband Amos Horn, who at first could not speak due to pain, "has two missing brothers, who are part of that same community" (by Kibbutz Nir Oz). Horn said that the attackers entered "on Saturday at half past six and since then I have not heard anything from them (his brothers)." And he added that through a friend who lived there he learned that "there were terrorists in the kibbutz, who shot and killed people," until after a while "the army arrived to take people out, but my brothers did not appear."