Gazans, families of Israeli hostages feel forgotten as focus shifts to Lebanon and Iran

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Shaaban Abu Dayyeh’s heart sinks each time he sees the latest news about Israel’s invasion of Lebanon or the fallout from Iran’s missile attack on the Jewish state. Each headline from elsewhere, he fears, draws attention away from the war in his native Gaza, and makes the possibility of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas even more remote.

“We are still suffering too much. Too much,” the 65-year-old English teacher said in a telephone interview. Mr. Abu Dayyeh has lost a sister and two nephews during 363 days of war in Gaza, and has been displaced seven times by the fighting.

“The concentration now is all on Lebanon,” he said. “The world has really forgotten Gaza and what Israel is doing here.”

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It’s a concern shared, for very different reasons, by the families and friends of the Israeli hostages who have been held in Gaza since Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel last Oct. 7, killing almost 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and taking some 250 others back to Gaza as hostages.

It’s not just a shift in media attention, either. The past two weeks have seen Israeli military units drawn away from Gaza, where more than 100 of the hostages remain unaccounted for as the anniversary of the Hamas attack approaches, to fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

There has been little talk of the proposed ceasefire deal in Gaza – which would see the remaining hostages released in exchange for a halt in the Israeli offensive – since Israel escalated its war against Hezbollah with the Sept. 27 assassination of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Iran’s mass missile attack Tuesday against Israeli cities has brought the Middle East closer to a regional war, and further from any kind of peace agreement.

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In three video speeches this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Israelis first about the threats posed by Hezbollah and Iran, mentioning Hamas and Gaza only in relation to the wider conflict.

In each speech, priority was placed on defeating Hezbollah to allow 60,000 residents of northern Israel to return to their homes near the border with Lebanon; the hostages in Gaza were spoken of only toward the end of the remarks, with vague assurances from Mr. Netanyahu that “we do not forget them.”

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But that’s exactly what those waiting for news about their missing loved ones fear is happening.

“We are deeply concerned that as attention shifts, our loved ones may be forgotten, and that the ongoing conflict with Lebanon places their lives at greater risk,” read a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum that was sent in response to questions from The Globe and Mail on Thursday.

The group, which was founded by relatives of those missing in the first days after the Oct. 7 attack, said it supported the effort to allow displaced northern Israelis to return home, but demanded that Gaza and the fate of the hostages be part of any negotiations over what happens next between Israel, Lebanon and Iran.

“We call on the American administration, the French government, the UN, and all relevant parties to ensure that any diplomatic agreement includes the release of all hostages. Their release is crucial not only for addressing the humanitarian crisis but also for restoring stability in the region.”

While Gaza ceasefire talks appear frozen for now – with Israel and Hamas both blaming the other for sabotaging previous negotiations via the United States, Qatar and Egypt – the violence continues.

On Thursday, there were reports of Israeli air strikes and artillery attacks on the north, centre and south of the strip, killing at least six Palestinians.

Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the territory updated its count of the number of Gazans killed since Oct. 7 to 41,689, a figure that includes more than 6,000 women and 11,000 children. The Palestinian death toll – like the Israeli toll for Oct. 7 – does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs says 1.9 million people in Gaza – 90 per cent of the population – have been driven from their homes, while 495,000 people are facing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity.”

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“I do believe Lebanon has taken attention away from the daily Israeli attacks and the daily Palestinian suffering,” Mohammad Abualrob, director of communications for Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa, told The Globe in an interview in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Mr. Abualrob said the real Palestinian death toll would almost certainly prove to be much higher than the figure compiled so far by Gazan doctors – who are employees of the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas – since an estimated 10,000 more bodies are believed to lie beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. The UN says upward of 60 per cent of all buildings in Gaza have been damaged in the conflict.

The Israeli military says 346 of its soldiers have died in fighting that has left it with de facto control over Gaza, even as 101 of the hostages remain missing, 35 of whom are believed to have died in captivity. The fate of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a key target for the Israeli military, also remains unknown.

A Gazan journalist said the pace of fatalities has slowed in recent days as Israel redeployed troops and equipment from Gaza to Lebanon. “But there is still killing and there is still a war here. There is no feeling that it will end.”

The Globe is not naming the Gazan journalist out of concern for their safety. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says 116 reporters and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists since the CPJ began compiling data in 1992.

International media have been prevented by Israel from entering Gaza to report unless they are embedded with the Israeli military.