The aim is to bring life to a street near the sites of the Hamas massacre on October 7th. A hundred relatives and acquaintances of the more than 100 hostages kidnapped in Gaza set off on foot from near the border with the Gaza Strip towards Jerusalem this Wednesday morning. The four-day march is part of a new push against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They want Israel to prioritize an agreement with Hamas so that their relatives can return home before military operations on Palestinian soil.
Gadi Moses turns 80 on March 12th. On the 145th day of his captivity, his son Oded is among those traveling north on Highway 232, which runs parallel to the fence that separates Israel from the Palestinian enclave. “We have to come to an agreement with the enemies, because the return of the hostages will only be possible through political means,” he understands. On the asphalt where they advance, the scars of the Hamas attack that killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 are still visible in the area.
This triggered a war in which Israel has already killed almost 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza in retaliation. Oded, who wears his father's picture on his black T-shirt, is convinced that the Israeli authorities are capable of stopping the military operation, reaching an agreement and then putting an end to Hamas. After 49 days, his mother Margalit Moses, 77, who like Gadi had been kidnapped in Kibbutz Nir Oz, was released. The parties agreed to a ceasefire, which took effect in the last week of November, and provided for the return of 105 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. Now they are trying to bring about a second end to the war with weeks of negotiations.
Relatives of the more than 130 hostages still kidnapped in Gaza began a four-day march to Jerusalem today from Reim, a town on the Gaza border where Hamas killed more than 200 people on October 7.Luis de Vega
The organizers of the march, who organized a similar march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in November, chose one of the scenes of the October 7 barbarism as their starting point. This is the site where the Nova festival took place near Kibbutz Reim and where Palestinian Islamists killed 360 people. Hundreds of messages, photos, personal items, candles, small altars, flowers, flags… remember the victims of the tragedy. Some are part of the more than 134 hostages still in Gaza, although authorities estimate around thirty are already dead. “RIP Elijah” is written on a tree trunk next to a broken red heart and the date of the massacre.
“Together for the release of the hostages” is the motto under which they will be traveling until Saturday, explains Ronen Neutra, father of Omer Neutra, one of those still kidnapped, before leaving. Every day they will complete a stage of between 15 and 20 kilometers. It is a march for “hope” so that no one is left behind, “the living and the murdered,” he adds. They understand that the entire Netanyahu-led cabinet is “responsible” for ensuring that this agreement includes everyone, and indirectly refers to people of all ages and situations, as military personnel have also been captured. Like Ronen, the vast majority of participants wear T-shirts or posters with their loved ones' photos on wooden poles.
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Ziv and Gali Berman, 26-year-old twins who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kafar Azza, share one of these posters. It's in the hands of Macabit Mayer, her aunt, who comes forward and lifts her up so they can get a good look at each other. “They must be released in an agreement. “We fear that it would be dangerous if the army rescued them,” he commented, accompanied by his brother Nir Sobol. So far, only two civilians have been freed by the army in Gaza. It happened on February 12 as part of an unprecedented operation in Rafah in the south. Some of the hostages previously died in failed rescue attempts in other parts of the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops also killed three of the abducted people while waving a white flag. “We hope things will develop (by the government) behind closed doors. We have to trust them, we have no choice,” says Macabit Mayer.
But there are parts of the government and Israeli society that, regardless of the abductees, defend a relentless military operation. “I am a family. For me the only way is agreement. We fear for their lives. What I ask of others is to put themselves in my shoes. My only answer is that they think it was their own family. “His son, his mother, his father, his grandmother …,” explains the aunt of Ziv and Gali Berman, who were doing well at the end of November, according to some hostages from their kibbutz who were released at the time.
Several police officers observe a board with photos of the victims at the Nova festival before accompanying the departure of the hostages' relatives from the march.Luis de Vega
“The aim of all this is to achieve peace with the enemies. We have to live with them,” defends Oded Moses. “Years ago we were already at war with Egypt and Jordan and now we are doing more or less well. I think that is what we have to do with the Palestinians, but not with Hamas, which is a terrorist group and has nothing to do with the Palestinians' desire for a state,” he concludes. Moses clings to optimism about his mother's release and to the video released by the Palestinian Islamist group Islamic Jihad on December 19, in which his father appears with another hostage, denouncing the “unbearable” conditions of captivity and Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders are calling for action.
The group sets off towards Sderot. Saroo, 27, has no family in Gaza but made his way to Jerusalem barefoot. Hadar Norany, 39, is also walking, accompanied by a poster with the photo of her friend and co-worker at a veterinary center Doron Steinbrecher, 31, who appeared in a video released by Hamas a month ago. They are all accompanied by support vehicles and a group of soldiers. Some of the patrol cars remain behind to cut off and direct traffic.
Before leaving in her car, Agent Betty Perez tells the reporter where to go. He realizes he is Spanish and jumps. “You have a Flemish and Camarón-Israeli police in front of you,” shouts in Spanish this 37-year-old woman of Moroccan-Jewish ancestry who moved to Catalonia and describes herself as a fan of Camarón de la Isla. As proof of this, she has the same tattoo as the singer, with a star and a crescent moon. “Many people here believe that it is a political tattoo, but no, it is in his honor.”
A moment of the march of the relatives of the hostages still being kidnapped in Gaza.Luis de Vega
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