Daughters of cyclist hostage appeal for his release
THE DAUGHTERS of a man kidnapped by Hamas while he was cycling in southern Israel have appealed to the world not to forget him and all the other hostages held in Gaza.
Ron Benjamin, 53, a car salesman from Rehovot and a keen cyclist, was captured on October 7 but it was 57 days before his daughters Shai, 26, and Gil, 21, were told by the Israeli authorities that his abduction had been confirmed.
“It was a relief,” Shai told the JC. “It was the best of all the options that we were left with.”
She said that time stopped for her family on October 7, with everything since seeming like one long nightmare.
“I am running a marathon, but the finish line keeps getting further away from me,” she said. “I can’t breathe anymore. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t do anything without feeling guilty. I need this to be over.”
Shai called on the international community to remember her father and all the other October 7 victims, as the alternative would be tantamount to normalising the unthinkable.
“It’s not normal to kidnap people from their beds or at a music festival. We need to keep fighting for them because they are human beings,” she said.
“This is not just our problem, it’s the world’s problem.”
On October 7, Shai was on her way back to Israel from a holiday in the Philippines when her phone started ringing nonstop.
“I received a torrent of messages saying that Israel was under attack. I texted my mother and sister who were hiding inside the safe room in Rehovot,” she said.
“My dad sent me voice messages that he was near Gaza, in Kibbutz Be’eri, that rockets were flying above his head and he didn’t know what to do.”
Ron’s last recorded message to his daughter, at 6.37am, said he was trying to return home and that he would soon be in touch.
“I called, I texted, but nothing. My father always picks up when I call. I knew something was wrong immediately,” explained Shai.
Still unaware of how serious the situation was, she managed to locate her father’s car near Kibbutz Mefalsim using its GPS system.
In a desperate move, Shai started calling Mefalsim residents from a list of numbers she had found online, asking them for help.
“They told us they had not seen him and that terrorists were shooting outside. That’s when we realised that Hamas had entered Israel,” she said.
During the attack, Hamas shut down surveillance cameras along the border, which made it more difficult to track people down.
“We went to every hospital and described my father, showing them a picture of his tattoo in case they could not recognise his face or he had no ID,” Shai said.
“After eight weeks, the authorities came to tell us he had been kidnapped. It was a relief. It meant he could still be saved,” she added.
None of the 105 hostages released in late November as part of a weeklong ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas could provide any update on Ron’s status.
Shai has met several former captives, including Luis Har, who was rescued in February in an IDF operation in Rafah.
“They told me that the men are subjected to constant humiliation. They are shaved from head to toe, laughed at, called filthy animals and told that their families are dead,” said Shai. “I don’t know if my father will ever be the same. When he comes back, we will take care of him. He will need help.”
Gil compared having an abducted father to losing a limb.
“I feel that he is missing. Sometimes, I call him, when I’m about to head out or when I get home safe. But he’s not here,” she told the JC.
“He’s more than just a poster on some wall, he’s an extremely thoughtful father.”
Gil implored people to share her father’s story, and sent him words of hope: “I love you and I miss you. I cannot wait for you to return. One day, we’ll travel the globe together.”