We hope that she is alive and conscious, says uncle of young woman kidnapped by Hamas

“We have this hope that she is alive, conscious, more or less well,” said Mario Ricardo Fishbein, uncle of Tchelet Fishbein-Zaarur the 18-year-old young woman, daughter of a Brazilian mother, who is among the hostages kidnapped by Hamas.

Tchelet, called Celeste by her Brazilian family, is one of 199 hostages held by the radical Islamic group in the Gaza Strip after the surprise attack on Israel on October 7.

“We hope she is not scared, not cold and at least has some food and water. We know that the issue of water and food is very precarious in Gaza”, said Mario Ricardo.

The Brazilian woman’s uncle says that on the Friday before the Hamas attack, on October 6, the family was gathered at the house of her mother, Celeste’s grandmother, at a party. On the day of the attack, everyone hid in the safe rooms of their respective homes “thinking it was a normal missile attack, which happens all the time”, and continued communicating through messages when they were surprised by the Hamas offensive.

The last message sent by the young woman in a messaging group was the day after the attack, Sunday (8), to warn that members of Hamas had managed to access the kibbutz’s internet network and could start sending messages as well.

Asked about the possibility of seeing his niece again, Mario Ricardo said that “Hamas protects hostages, both the living and the dead, better than [protege] their own people.”

According to him, the radical group “guards” the hostages, whether alive or not, to sell any type of information about the kidnapped people. “I’m not talking about returning the hostages, but any type of information such as their name, their situation. They sell the information so that terrorists are released in exchange,” he said.

“If my niece is there, she is very well guarded, both alive and dead,” he said. “[Vê-la de novo] it depends on Hamas, and we know what Hamas is capable of.”

He also said that Celeste had to learn to deal with the region’s long-standing conflict from a very early age. “When she was 6 years old, a missile fell very close to her and my sister. To this day she [Celeste] he has shrapnel from that missile in his body.”

According to Mario Ricardo, Celeste has always been a sweet girl. “I always knew how to give love and affection to everyone, completely harmless and affectionate. She had no intention of going into the Army [israelense]was a peaceful person and against wars.”

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