CHICAGO (CBS) — The war in Gaza has been raging for more than a year now and many are still calling for the safe return of Israeli hostages that Hamas took during the October 7 terrorist attack last year.
A young woman is on a mission to raise awareness of two brothers still held captive by Hamas.
“Since October 7, I have completely stopped my life. I studied and stopped studying. I stopped my job,” said Noa Reuveni.
Her goal for the past year has been to raise awareness for twin brothers Ziv and Gali Berman, and the nearly 100 other hostages kidnapped by Hamas during an attack on Israel.
“I feel like over time they get forgotten,” she said.
Ziv and Gali Berman were forcibly removed from their community when Hamas terrorists attacked the Kfar Aza kibbutz in Israel.
“I have received more than 20 messages from him saying, ‘I’m scared. I’m shaking. I can’t relax. Where is the IDF?'” Reuveni said.
Reuveni was one of the last people to hear from the brothers, and she hasn’t talked about them since. She regularly addresses crowds at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, and she is on a mission here in the US
This week in Chicago she speaks to Jewish organizations about her friends and the hostage crisis. It is her third trip to America in the past two months.
“I honestly don’t think the US is doing enough for the hostages,” she said.
Room by room, city by city, Reuveni said she will not stop advocating for Ziv and Gali until all the hostages are home.
“What gives me strength is them. Ziv and Gali give me strength,” she said. “The day we stop talking about them is the day we give up on them.”
Reuveni said no videos or photos of the brothers have been released so far. The only evidence of life comes from another hostage who was released and reported seeing them alive.