Bruce Pearl, coach of Auburn University’s top-seeded March Madness men’s basketball team, addressed the issue of hostages shortly after their win against Creighton. He began his press conference after the March 22 game by calling for the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who is currently held in Gaza by Hamas.
Following his press conference, Pearl invited Alexander’s family to watch their Sweet 16 game against the University of Michigan on March 28. Prior to the game, Alexander’s father, Adi, and brother, Roy, met their favorite player, Michigan Wolverines’ Danny Wolf.
“An American held hostage and not enough people in this country know his name.”
Bruce Pearl, The Times of Isreal
Wolf holds dual American and Israeli citizenship and won a silver medal with Team Israel at the 2023 FIBA Under-20 European Championships. He detailed how his Jewish upbringing shaped him as an athlete and person, stating, “I grew up in a family with parents that instilled values in us from a young age, including tzedakah. My parents instilled giving back and being able to help those out in need.”
Alexander, an Israeli-American IDF soldier, was stationed on the Gaza border when he was taken hostage on October 7, and he has been held captive in Gaza ever since. The 21-year-old grew up in the U.S. and is the last American hostage believed to be alive. The bodies of four other dual Israeli-American nationals — Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Judi Weinstein, and Gadi Haggai — are also being held.
There are currently 59 remaining hostages in Gaza, with an estimated 24 alive. In a 60 Minutes interview on March 30, former hostage Yarden Bibas spoke about the atrocities of being held captive by Hamas and advocated for the release of the remaining hostages.
Bibas was forced to sit on camera after Hamas told him that an Israeli air raid had killed his wife and two children. “They were all murdered in cold blood, bare hands,” Bibas said in his CBS interview. “They [Hamas] used to tell me, ‘Oh, doesn’t matter. You’ll get a new wife. Get new kids. Better wife. Better kids.'” Israeli officials later confirmed that Biba’s children were murdered by their captors.
Bibas’s best friend, David Cunio, and Cunio’s brother, Ariel, are still being held hostage and presumed to be alive. They were kidnapped along with Cunio’s wife, Sharon, and their children, who were released during the first ceasefire in November 2023. Bibas, who has known Cunio since first grade, spoke about carrying on after losing his best friend.
“Probably the hardest thing: I have to move [on] with my life, and David is not with me,” Bibas told 60 Minutes. “[He] lost [his] wife and kids. Sharon must not lose her husband.”
Several released hostages have been meeting with parents of those still in captivity to notify them about the state of their children. Tal Shoham met with the parents of his best friends still in Gaza, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David, after spending 471 days in captivity with them.
Hamas took them from the Nova Music Festival. Shoham said they were mostly confined to a narrow tunnel, made to share minuscule amounts of rice, water, and bread, and beaten daily. In the same 60 Minutes interview mentioned, Shoham told Gilboa-Dalal and David’s parents that “sometimes the water tastes like blood, sometimes like iron. Sometimes it was so salty that you could not drink it, but you don’t have anything else… You don’t need too much to stay alive.”
As a form of torture, Hamas put the two best friends in a van to watch fellow hostages be released, then showed a video of them begging for their freedom, only to be returned to the tunnels.
Shoham also shared his fears that time is running out to save Gilboa-Dalal and David, as they have both expressed thoughts of ending their own lives to escape the torture.
When asked how she is able to listen to Shoham’s details, David’s mother, Galia David, told 60 Minutes, “I want everyone to listen because this is the reality. Maybe someone will hear it, and it will save our sons.”
March Madness has helped illuminate the remaining hostages in Gaza, specifically Alexander. Through Pearl’s advocacy and the meeting between Alexander’s family and Wolf’s, they remind the world of the urgency needed to bring Alexander and the remaining hostages home.