'He fought for peace': Daughter of Israeli hostage pleads for release of elderly father
The daughter of an Israeli hostage has said her elderly father has spent his life fighting for peace and she is hoping for his safe return.
Oded Lifshitz, 83, is still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. The retired journalist was kidnapped from his home along with his wife on October 7.
His wife Yocheved, 85, was released on October 25 on humanitarian grounds, she described her weeks in captivity as "hell."
Speaking to ITV News their daughter Sharone said she was worried about her father.
Sharone Lifshitz said her father had always fought for peace
"He's resilient and strong but he is old and frail it is very hard to wish collapse of the world upon him," she said.
"He did not deserve that, he spent a lifetime trying to avert the outcomes of not reaching long-term agreements when you are strong.
"He fought for peace, he fought the importance of seeing the human on both sides."
Speaking directly to her father Sharone said he "spent a lifetime fighting for this cause and we will continue fighting for what we believe, you believe in community, you believe in the children, you believe in the young people.
"We always from the first moment felt that you put them first and I know that even now that you believe in this community, in this spirit, and we work in this spirit of those values that you have showed us."
Sharone Liftshitz's message to her father
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis hit the streets in protest over the weekend, after the Israel Defence Force recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino were found on Saturday in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the Israeli military said.
An IDF spokesperson said "they were cruelly murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them".
Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the hostages would still be alive if Israel had accepted a US-backed ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to in July.
Three of the six hostages found dead were reportedly scheduled to be released in the first phase of the deal.
A general strike is now underway in some parts of Israel called to demand the government reach a hostage release deal.
The strike (which hasn't impacted the entire country) has affected airports, shopping centres and schools in a day of action calling on the government to agree a Gaza ceasefire deal to release hostages held by Hamas.
An Israeli labour court has ordered that strike must end.
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