Father concealed his Muslim identity to protect hostage son

If Hamas had known his paternity, “it could hurt Liam,” his father Ramzy Nassar told Ynet in an interview quoted by the Times of Israel.

“It’s not something that would have been well-received on the other side, that his Muslim father is married to a Jewish woman, even though there’s no such prohibition in Islam. The boy could have been considered a traitor, a son of a traitor.”

Changing his son’s name had been a “painful decision,” he said. “I was devastated that I had to stay silent because of my identity, my origins, in the very country I live in, out of fear that it could harm my son, whether in Gaza or here in Israel. It made me ask what kind of reality I am even living in.”

Liam Or-Nassar[Missing Credit]

Liam – who had been shot in the stomach – was released in November 2023 after 54 days in captivity along with his cousins Noam and Alma who had also been taken from the kibbutz. His cousin’s parents – his mother’s brother and her husband – were murdered.

In an interview with Ynet in 2024, he recalled how in Gaza he had “slept with my hands tied behind my back on the sand and stones in the tunnels. I also remember how they fed me small portions of cake once a day so I'll die slowly.

"When your hands are tied, you can't stop the monsters there from abusing you, and how easy it gets when you have a gunshot wound in the stomach.”

His father said in hospital on his return to Israel Liam had been surprised to be given an identity card with his abbreviated name and had asked that it be changed back.