Father’s Heartbreak as Search for Missing Daughter Stalls While Other Hostages Return

Nearly two and a half years have passed since Haimnout Kassaou vanished, yet her father says Israeli security services have effectively abandoned the search. Despite repeated appeals from the family, Shin Bet has not engaged meaningfully with the case, he claims, and responses from Levinot 433—the unit reportedly handling hostage negotiations—have ceased entirely.

The father’s desperation was evident in an account of meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “He said he would look into it and get back to me,” the father recalled. “We haven’t heard from him since.” The lack of progress contrasts sharply with recent developments in other hostage cases, including the return of Yoval, whose release has brought some families relief from their ordeal.

Walking the line between hope and despair, Haimnout’s father expressed the psychological toll of the prolonged uncertainty. “I feel caught between the living and the dead,” he said. “I’m constantly searching for her.” His words underscore the profound human cost of unresolved cases, where families remain trapped in a state of agonising limbo while other hostages return home to their loved ones.

The contrasting fates of hostages—some secured through negotiations, others still missing—have intensified scrutiny on the authorities’ approach to individual cases and whether resources and effort are being distributed fairly across all families affected by the crisis.

Source: Ynet — Original article in Hebrew.