Israeli laptop warriors fight for hostages taken by Hamas as American father of teenage captive describes his ‘living hell’
The last time Ruby Chen heard from his 19-year-old son Itay was a message at 6:40 a.m. saying his military base was under attack with missiles.
His father just woke up to the news that Hamas militants had launched a surprise attack on Israel.
“That was 12 days ago,” the New York-born father of four told DailyMail.com. “That was the last time we had contact with him.”
Itay, who has dual US-Israeli citizenship, is among more than 200 Israelis believed to be being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas terrorists or other extremist groups.
The crisis has sparked an extraordinary response among the Israeli population, who have been uniquely equipped by decades of war to deploy skills learned in the security services or the technology industry.
Itay Chen, 19, was on active duty as part of a tank unit close to the Gaza border when he was attacked on October 7. He is still missing, probably hostage
Chen is one of 203 Israelis believed to be being held by terrorists in Gasa. He holds dual American-Israeli citizenship, courtesy of his father, who is from Brooklyn, New York
A campaign to keep the hostages’ plight in the headlines has brought together a thousand volunteers, coordinating international protests and social media campaigns from the glitzy offices of a law firm in a Tel Aviv tower block.
And across the city, there are at least two attempts by tech experts to use the latest geolocation technology and artificial intelligence to find clues from videos posted by Hamas that could aid a rescue mission.
Karine Nahon, an information science academic, is one of the leaders of a team looking into video footage posted online by Hamas. They use AI in combination with facial and voice recognition software to identify the missing and track down locations.
“The government currently relies on the information coming out of these rooms,” Nahon told Reuters.
About 1,500 technical experts work in a war room at the Tel Aviv Expo Center.
Across town, another war room operates in the offices of Gittam BBDO, an advertising agency run by a former member of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
Some volunteers have experience with 8200, the Israeli army’s cyber intelligence division, and with Duvdevan, the undercover counter-terrorism unit that inspired the Netflix series Fauda.
They described to the Washington Post how a series of videos showing a hostage being led by armed men in Gaza showed a phone number on a wall. The song was for a company, allowing the team to settle in a neighborhood in the Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Professor Karine Nahon heads a war room for missing citizens at the Tel Aviv Expo Center
Tel Aviv is littered with images of the hostages, part of a massive campaign to pressure the government to ensure they are brought home safely
“We are figuring this all out as we go,” said one volunteer who declined to give his name because he is a reservist with Duvdevan.
And then there’s the PR campaign from the law firm on the seventh floor of the Museum Tower, where floor-to-ceiling windows allow light to flood the operation.
If you’ve seen photos of protests in New York or Australia, they may be from the conference room here that houses the international committee of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Another room is used by the medical team, which documents the medicines urgently needed for missing persons.
There is a room for influencers, where video clips and memes are created to send to influential social media users.
Former diplomats use another meeting room and exploit their connections with foreign governments to extract favors.
Families of hostages come and go all day long. The forum acts as a media booker, helping to coordinate interviews while keeping their case in the news, as well as providing emotional support, practical help and information about their loved ones.
Families of the hostages take part in a special ‘Kabalat Shabbat’ prayer service next to a ‘Shabbat Dinner’ table in Tel Aviv’s Museum Square, with 200 empty chairs, representing the hostages and missing people on October 20, 2023
They said prayers and sang at a table set for more than 200 missing people
Photos of the missing printed by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum as part of their campaign to keep the hostages in the public eye
Well-wishers arrive throughout the day in the spacious lobby with trays of cookies, kebabs and flatbreads.
On Friday, the world’s media descended on a square below, where a table was set for the traditional Jewish Friday evening Shabbat dinner. There was an empty spot for all 203 people believed to have been kidnapped.
Some areas were set up for highchairs, reflecting the twenty children among the hostages.
A few dozen relatives of the missing said prayers and sang through tears.
The idea was to illustrate the family’s vulnerability, says Ophyr Hanan, 26 years old with a BA in communications and a job at website building platform WIX.
“We started as a group of volunteers on behalf of the families and we will remain that way,” she told DailyMail.com. ‘We are a headquarters for the families of hostages and missing people.
“We are here to help them in any way we can.”
Part of that means continuing to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which is already accused of letting the nation down by failing to prevent the Hamas attack.
Ruby Chen, with another son Roy in New York, said time was not on the side of the hostages and their families
“Time is not on our side,” Chen said, describing the trauma all families faced.
‘You wake up in the morning and think you’re in a nightmare. Then you understand that it’s real, like getting a slap in the face, finding out that this is a bizarre universe we’re in.
“It’s hell, you have a black hole in your stomach.”
Giving up is not an option when it comes to Hamas, he added.
‘Do you know what happens when you stand still in hell? You’re burning up,” he said.
‘So we have to keep walking. Continue to do what we can to amplify this message and ensure that the global community knows that there are people who have committed crimes against humanity. All of us.’