london - Sharone Lifschitz knew her 84-year-old father was in a tough situation. One of the oldest hostages held by Hamas, Oded Lifshitz will be among the first to be released under a ceasefire expected to begin on Sunday.

But after 469 days in captivity in Gaza, she can only hope he survives.

“We’ve learned so much about trauma and loss,” says the London-based artist. "I have to say we're ready."

About 100 hostages in Gaza are still missing, 62 of whom are believed to be alive. Family and friends are still waiting to learn who survived and their conditions.

Lifshitz's ordeal began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Kibbutz Nir Oz, where her parents had created their own small kingdom and owned a home that her father was attracted to. Proud cactus garden. That day, armed men held hostage a quarter of the community's 400 residents, including her parents.

"My father was shot in the hand and lying on the edge of his kingdom," said Lifshitz, 53. They put gas into the house and it burned until everything they owned was reduced to ashes. "

Oded Lifshitz, whose name was spelled slightly differently than his daughter's, was not immune, although he spent his life fighting for Arab rights.

Throughout his long journalism career, Odeh has campaigned for recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between Arabs and Jews. After retiring, he drove to the Erez crossing on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip once a week as part of Road to Recovery, transporting Palestinians to Israel for medical treatment.

Odeh was most proud of his work on behalf of the traditionally nomadic Bedouin people of the Negev Desert, his daughter said, describing a case that went to Israel's High Court and resulted in the return of some of their land.

This deep-seated hope for coexistence was evident when militants released Lifshitz's mother, Jocheved, on October 23, 2023. Just before leaving Gaza, Yocheved turned to her captors and said "shalom," the Hebrew word for peace.

Yocheved later described her experience as hell, saying she was beaten with sticks and locked in a spiderweb of tunnels with up to 25 hostages. But she also said her guards provided medicine to those who needed it and gave hostages pita bread, cheese and cucumbers.

Lifshitz said she wonders every day how her father is being treated and how he is doing.

"I was the last person to speak to him, but I can tell you that his whole life he believed there was an alternative to Zionism, to socialism," she said.

Hamas militants killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages in an attack on October 7. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched air and ground attacks on Gaza that have killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The ceasefire proposal calls for the release of 33 hostages within the next six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. The rest, including the bodies of the deceased, will be released in a second phase, which is still under negotiation. Hamas said it would not release the remaining prisoners without a lasting ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The outlines of the deal are strikingly similar to one negotiated by outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden's administration in May. But Israel rejected the deal.

This angered many of the captives' families, especially after hostages continued to die.

The families fought hard for the release of their loved ones, sparking a series of protests that forced the Israeli government to fulfill its promise to bring the hostages home. They also traveled the globe, meeting with presidents, prime ministers and even the pope, putting hostages at the center of negotiations.

"If they hadn't broken this deal, so many people were killed who should have been alive," Lifshitz said. "I hope they know they're going to have to live with this for the rest of their lives and we're going to remind them. We're going to remind them ... Their actions have caused pain to both parties."

But even as she describes the pain of the past 15 months, Lifshitz said she hopes the pain experienced by people on both sides of the conflict will inspire compassion among Israelis and Palestinians.

"We are about to welcome our loved ones after we have been unable to love and care for them for so long," she said. "There's so much trauma. I think one has to be a little gentle with it all and just feel it in your heart.

“I think feeling the pain of others is the beginning of building something better.”

What if her father doesn't come back? Then what?

"We'll find out," she said. "We'll find out."