Nearly two years after Palestinian militants took his son captive, Kobi Kalfon decided to speak out, feeling powerless with no end in sight to Israel's war in Gaza.
"My heart stopped beating on October 7," Kalfon said, the day in 2023 of the Hamas attack that triggered the war.
Since then, the distressed father has felt the fate of his son, 27-year-old Segev, was "in the hands of others".
"Imagine you're walking with your son in a shopping mall. You turn your head, and he's disappeared. Your pulse races, stress mounts. Then your heart stops," Kalfon told AFP at the family home in Dimona, in southern Israel.
Relatives of hostages have long staged protests in Israel and pleaded with political leaders to agree to a ceasefire to bring their loved ones home.
But a handful of families, such as Kalfon's, remained silent, only speaking out as the war dragged on with no prospect of a hostage release deal, heightening fears over the conditions of the remaining captives.
"When I hear about what he's going through in captivity, I'm on the verge of collapse," said Kalfon, whose son is among 49 hostages still held in Gaza.
The Israeli military believes that no more than 22 of them are alive.
'He will return'
Segev Kalfon was abducted at the Nova music festival, where Hamas militants killed more than 370 people during their 2023 attack.
The Kalfons, who had so far remained discreet about their family ordeal, began to change their attitude after seeing some hostages in February, during a truce that collapsed the following month.
Kobi, the father, recalled that some of the freed hostages "said they had watched television (in captivity), and I kept thinking: Segev couldn't hear me or his mother, Galit."
In their absent son's room, religious books, talismans, notes, and children's drawings sent from all over Israel were heaped on the bed.
A note in a child's handwriting said: "We're waiting for Segev".
"I have faith and I believe he will return," said Kobi, pointing to a black sports bag filled with his son's belongings, kept ready for any release.
"We wait for that call every day, 24 hours a day."
'Enough!'
Portraits of Segev, bright-eyed with a shy smile, fill the family bakery in the town of Arad where he used to work, and employees wear shirts with his picture.
"He got along with everyone, everyone loved him, and even though he was the boss's son, he behaved like a normal employee," his father said.
The shop "is a microcosm of Israeli society", Kalfon proudly said, welcoming people from all religions and walks of life.
He introduced the store manager, a Bedouin woman who wears a hijab, and pointed to an Orthodox Jew who is a regular customer.
Like the Kalfons, who had avoided speaking out in public since their son was kidnapped, the family of another hostage, Rom Braslavski, had long remained discreet.
But last week, videos released by militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad showed Braslavski and another Israeli captive, Evyatar David, appearing weak and emaciated, as UN agencies sounded the alarm on the risk of mass starvation in the Palestinian territory, where Israel has heavily restricted aid deliveries.
The footage shocked Israelis, reviving a debate around the need to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza as quickly as possible to save the hostages' lives.
Braslavski's father, Ofir, broke his silence on Saturday at a rally in Tel Aviv, addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of tens of thousands of demonstrators.
"Enough! You are a leader, and a leader must make decisions," he said.
"Take this decision, end the war, and bring everyone back."