/It is a day of mourning in Israel as the country marks two years since the Oct. 7 attacks. On that day, Hamas and other militant groups killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage, according to Israeli officials.

The attack spurred Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed at least 67,000 Palestinians in two years, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

And while the war continues, families in Israel have waited, often in vain, for good news about the release of the hostages taken.

Daniel Lifshitz intimately knows what the wait for news — good or bad — feels like. His grandparents were kidnapped from their Kibbutz in southern Israel and held hostage inside Gaza.

His grandmother, Yocheved Lifshitz, was among the first hostages released by Hamas. But his grandfather was later ki

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