CNN anchor Jake Tapper interviewed Dor Steinbrecher, the brother of hostage Doron Steinbrecher, a nurse and veterinarian from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who told him that a Red Cross worker had dismissed a concern from their mother for needed medication, rebuking the family that they should be more concerned about Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, Steinbrecher described his 30-year-old sister’s experience on the morning of Oct. 7. He told Tapper how she called their mother and cried, saying she was lying under her bed in a safe room after attempting to barricade the door. “She thought it would be enough; it wasn’t,” Dor said.
“Have you any evidence that she’s still alive? Are there photographs or other hostages that have been freed who saw her?” Tapper asked.
“No, unfortunately, no,” answered Dor, who lives outside the kibbutz. “All the hostages who came back, no one [has seen] her in Gaza. We didn’t have any sign of life for her.”
Tapper responded, “Well, that doesn’t mean she’s not alive … they’re all separated. Your sister takes medication daily, and I know your parents reached out to the Red Cross to help ensure that she’s able to get that medication. What did the Red Cross have to say?”
Dor said that his sister needs her medication daily and suspected that she has not taken it since Oct. 7. “My mom had a few minutes with the Red Cross and she told them my sister need[s] to get her medicine. And they told her that we should care more about Arab people on the other side.”
Tapper asked to clarify the Red Cross statement saying that the Steinbrecher family “should care more about the people in Gaza.”
Dor responded: “Yeah. And less about our beloved one who didn’t get her medicine.”
Tapper then sought to confirm the story, saying “Wait a second. So your sister takes medication every day. She was taken hostage. She’s a civilian; she was taken hostage by Hamas three months and a few days ago. … And your parents told this to the Red Cross in the hope they would be able to get the medication to her. … And their response was, ‘You should be more concerned about the people of Gaza?’”
Dor affirmed Tapper’s summary, prompting the CNN anchor to say, “That’s shocking,” leaving himself speechless for a moment.
Tapper concluded the interview on another note, asking Dor for his message to individuals around the world, particularly in the United States, who tear down posters of the hostages.
“I want them to know not just about my sister, each one of the hostages in Gaza, they are just citizens, most of them pulled out of their beds on Saturday morning, and taken to Gaza, with no reason,” Dor said before he paused for a moment. “I want them to try and imagine that all of the hostages in Gaza—the babies, the woman, the grandfathers—it’s their family members, their family beloved ones which need their help. And then think about why they did with the hostages posters.”