'The family has collapsed'

'We have a video that Hamas posted where his hands and neck were tied.'

Itzhak Tabatchnik's cousin 21-year-old Bar Kuperstein is one of the many Israelis held hostage by the Hamas

Itzhak shared with Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com a couple of pictures of Bar and also a video released by Hamas on the afternoon of October 7 -- the day they launched the attack on Israeli soil -- which shows Bar, and several other young Israelis in captivity with their hands and necks tied with rope. A couple of these hostages as seen in this video that Itzhak shared are bleeding.

'He assured his mother he would come back home'

Bar Kuperstein is my cousin and since his parents are not English speakers and even more than that, the father is disabled after a brain stroke, I am supporting the family for communication with the media.

At 6:30 in the morning, when Hamas started firing rockets across many Israeli areas, Bar called his mother and told her that in addition to the missiles, there was also a terror attack in the area where he was located, which was not far from Gaza.

He assured her that he would do his best to go back home, but he eventually decided not to go back home but stay there and help other youngsters who were injured in that attack.

Instead of running away, he stayed there and helped them. Eventually, the kidnappers succeeded in taking him and many others along with them.

Where is Bar?

We have a movie (video) that Hamas posted that noon where we saw his hands tied at the back and his neck was tied too.

We don't know the negotiations, if any, between Hamas and the (Israeli) government (for the release of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas). We don't know.

Eventually, we are only the citizens in the State of Israel and we are not being updated for many reasons -- some of them are right and some maybe wrong -- (about which) I don't know.

Hamas did not approach us in any case. That's it actually.

'The family has simply collapsed'

Bar is a responsible 21 year old and since his father is disabled, Bar has taken responsibility of the family.

Bar, instead of having fun during the holidays, simply chose to work in order to support the family.

He was at the south area of Israel (that adjoins Gaza) and was working at that (Nova music festial) which was attacked (by Hamas); he worked in the security organising this party.

He called his mother when the terror attack had started to tell her that he will try to get back home as soon as possible, but he stayed there in order to help others. This is very typical of Bar -- on one hand he updated his family, but on the other hand, he helped others as much as he could before he was kidnapped.

The family has simply collapsed. They are torn apart (like other Israelis who have their children in Hamas' custody and whose well-being and safety they are not sure about).

We are in contact with the government and with the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces), but there is nothing more we can do.

The only thing we can do is to speak with worldwide media and reporters and emphasise Bar's story, along with those others kidnapped people and their families, trying to emphasise to the reasonable world that there was a terror attack, which has nothing to do with any conflict.