Israelis mark another Passover hoping for Gaza captives to be freed

NAHAL OZ, Israel (AP) — Relatives of hostages in Gaza say they feel the absence of their loved ones acutely during Passover, which commemorates the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and their liberation from slavery.

Jews around the world will mark the beginning of the weeklong holiday Saturday night, gathering for a meal called a Seder that features symbolic foods and rituals to help recount a biblical story about bitter times, a flight from tyranny and, eventually, freedom.

In Israel, the second Passover since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, deadly attack stirs up a mix of complicated emotions — especially for those whose family members are among the 59 still in captivity in Gaza.

Last year, many families left an empty seat at their Seder tables to remember those killed or taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Lishay Miran Lavi recalls Passover two years ago as if it were a different life. In 2023, Passover fell four days after she gave birth to her second daughter, Alma. “We were a full family then, two parents, two daughters,” she said.

Her husband Omri Miran, who turned 48 on Friday, is one of the 24 hostages in Gaza still believed to be alive.

April brings a host of difficult days for the Miran family: Alma’s second birthday, Omri’s birthday, and the Passover holiday. They mark all the milestones because Miran Lavi wants her daughters to experience some joy. But each time the family gathers to blow out the candles on a birthday cake or sing songs during their Passover meal, it only sharpens Omri’s absence.

Each night before bed, Roni leads Alma in wishing their father goodnight, telling him what they did that day, what they learned at school and the things they want to do with Omri when he comes home. Alma, who knows Omri only through photos and videos, doesn’t really understand what a father is, Miran Lavi said.

“She knows that she had a father that is named Omri, and she calls him daddy Omri,” she said.

Alma was six months old when Hamas militants burst into their home on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, forcing Lishay, Omri, Alma, and their then 2-year-old daughter, Roni, into their neighbors' home. Militants, who had just killed their neighbors' 18-year-old daughter, broadcast a Facebook livestream of everyone being held hostage in the kitchen, before kidnapping the fathers, Omri and Tsachi Idan, to Gaza.

Idan’s body was released during the last hostage exchange.

Hamas killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 during its cross-border attack. Since then, Israeli bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up more than half the fatalities but does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

Miran Lavi says she was shocked, then furious, when Israel ended a ceasefire last month that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages. She can't help but think about how if the ceasefire and the hostage releases had continued, Omri would have been home by now.

Watching the return of other male hostages, emaciated and pale, Miran Lavi is terrified for her husband’s condition. Recently released hostages said they had seen Omri in captivity, but Miran Lavi has no details about his current condition. "I know this is the time Omri needs to come out,” she said.

Viki Cohen said her family has not marked any Jewish holidays since her 20-year-old son, Nimrod, a soldier, was taken by militants from his tank in southern Israel.

“We don’t gather as a family, because it reminds us how much he is missing, and that he’s not with us, and it’s very hard for us,” she said. The only time the extended family gathers is at protests.

But Cohen found a way this year to help keep hostages' memories alive during Passover. She illustrated a children’s Haggadah, the text laying out the rituals and story recited during the Seder.

She sprinkled colorful references to the hostages throughout the Haggadah to help spark discussions about them — a scorpion for Ohad Yahalomi, who loved the desert; a bushy mustache for Shlomo Mansour; cactuses lovingly tended by Oded Lifshitz; Batman symbols for Ariel Bibas; and a Rubik's cube for her son, who was obsessed with the puzzle and left one behind in his tank on the day he was abducted.

Cohen says her heart clenches when she sees other families gathering for Passover or taking trips abroad. She worries that as time passes, Israelis are beginning to normalize the unresolved hostage crisis.

“People are returning to their lives, but what about us?” said Cohen, who is opposed to Israel's decision to halt humanitarian aid to Gaza because it hurts both hostages and Palestinians.

She encouraged everyone attending a Passover meal around the world to “adopt” one hostage to talk about during their gathering, and to ask themselves what they can do to pressure the Israeli government to reach a deal to free the remaining hostages.

Last year, many families of hostages couldn’t imagine marking the holiday, explained Meirav Leshem Gonen, whose daughter, Romi, was released in January after 15 months in Gaza.

“Her absence was so strong, even just sitting around the table, not to hear her voice, her laughter, it was unimaginable and impossible,” she said.

This year, the family is reunited but painfully aware of the thousands of homes across Israel where families are grappling with absences — the families of 59 hostages still in captivity or those killed in the war, or others who were wounded or are still serving in the reserves, Leshem Gonen said.

She hopes the holiday can encourage more unity within Israel.

“It’s a holiday about liberation and working together, and a nation’s strength when they work together,” she said.

It’s traditional for families retelling the Passover story to find ways to make it relevant to today — a task that has extra meaning for Michael Levy, whose 34-year-old brother, Or Levy, was released from captivity in February.

“This is the Exodus from Egypt for the modern days,” he said.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Lishay Miran Lavi, whose husband of Omri Miran is held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, smokes at the family's home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, southern Israel, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

A poster depicting Omri Miran, who is held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at the family's home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, southern Israel, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

A t-shirt depicting Omri Miran, who is held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, hangs at the family's home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, southern Israel, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

The kitchen of the home of Omri Miran, who is held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is frozen in time since his Oct. 7, 2023 abduction in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, southern Israel, seen on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Lishay Miran Lavi, whose husband of Omri Miran is held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, poses for a portrait at the family's home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, southern Israel, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he's nominating his national security adviser Mike Waltz to serve as United Nations ambassador in a major shake-up of his national security team.

The president said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve simultaneously as acting national security adviser while maintaining his position at the State Department.

Trump announced the moves shortly after news broke that Waltz was leaving the administration, just weeks after it was revealed that he had added a journalist to a Signal chat being used to discuss military plans.

“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations. From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first,” Trump wrote on social media.

“In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN.”

There is precedent for the secretary of state to serve simultaneously as national security adviser. Henry Kissinger held both positions from 1973 to 1975.

Waltz came under searing scrutiny in March after revelations that he added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on the encrypted messaging app Signal, which was used to discuss planning for a sensitive March 15 military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen.

Trump’s decision to move Waltz to the U.N. comes weeks after he pulled his pick for the job, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, from consideration.

Stefanik went through a confirmation hearing, but her nomination was pulled in March because her vote to advance Trump’s agenda remains crucial to Republicans in the House.

“I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz said of the nomination.

A far-right ally of the president, Laura Loomer, had been targeting Waltz, telling Trump in a recent Oval Office conversation that he needs to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the “Make America Great Again” agenda.

Waltz served in the House representing Florida for three terms before being tapped for national security adviser.

In his second term, the Republican president had been looking to avoid the tumult of his first four years in office, during which he cycled through four national security advisers, four White House chiefs of staff and two secretaries of state.

The Signal chain episode also showed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop. Waltz had previously taken “full responsibility” for building the message chain and administration officials described the episode as a “mistake” but one that caused Americans no harm. Waltz maintained that he was not sure how Goldberg ended up in the messaging chain, and insisted he did not know the journalist.

Trump and the White House — which insisted that no classified information was shared on the text chain — have stood by Waltz publicly throughout the episode. But the embattled national security adviser was also under siege from personalities such as Loomer, who had been complaining to administration officials that she had been excluded from the vetting process for National Security Council aides.

In her view, Waltz relied too much on “neocons” — referring to hawkish neoconservatives within the Republican Party — as well as others who Loomer argued were “not-MAGA-enough” types.

As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the administration, Loomer appeared to take credit in a post on the social media site X, writing: “SCALP.”

“Hopefully, the rest of the people who were set to be fired but were given promotions at the NSC under Waltz also depart,” Loomer wrote in another post.

Loomer had taken a similar victory lap when several other NSC officials were dismissed last month one day after she met with Trump.

Questions are also swirling around Hegseth and his role in the Signal chat.

While Waltz set it up, Hegseth posted times for aircraft launches and bomb drops into the unsecured app and shared the same information with dozens of people in a second chat, including his wife and brother.

The Associated Press reported that Hegseth also bypassed Pentagon security protocols to set up an unsecured line for a personal computer in his office –- beside terminals where he was receiving classified information. That raises the possibility that sensitive information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.

The Pentagon inspector general is investigating Hegseth’s use of Signal, and he has faced criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans. It has added to the turmoil at the Pentagon at a time when Hegseth has dismissed or transferred multiple close advisers. Nonetheless, Trump has maintained public confidence in Hegseth.

Waltz shift from national security adviser to U.N. ambassador nominee means he will now have to face the Senate confirmation process he was able to avoid January.

The process, which proved to be difficult for a number of Trump’s Cabinet picks, will give lawmakers, especially Democrats, the first chance to grill Waltz on his decision to share information about an imminent U.S. airstrike on Signal. The group chat, which Waltz created, included several high-level Trump administration officials and the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine.

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Associated Press writer Tara Copp and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Washington, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

White House national security adviser Mike Waltz listens as President Donald Trump meets with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks during a television interview at the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks during a television interview at the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)