‘We cannot lose any more’: As the families of hostages held in the Gaza Strip arrived on foot in Jerusalem on Saturday, they demanded “answers” from the Israeli government, which has been under pressure after announcing the deaths of two prisoners in recent days .
• Also read: Israeli soldiers order evacuation of Gaza’s Al-Chifa hospital ‘in an hour’
According to the Israeli army, around 240 people were kidnapped on Israeli soil on October 7 in an unprecedented deadly attack by the Palestinian movement Hamas from the Gaza Strip, and their families have been fighting for their release ever since.
A sea of Israeli flags and hostage portraits flooded the highway to Jerusalem: several thousand people traveled together on the last leg of the journey, which began on Tuesday in Tel Aviv, around 60 kilometers away.
Printed on black T-shirts or signs, it is impossible to escape the faces of the hostages. “Mom, we are waiting for you. Come back,” reads alongside a photo of a smiling woman.
AFP
At the head of the procession, the faces of the families are somber, some wiping away a tear, others stopping to hug each other.
Protesters gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and released hundreds of yellow balloons into the sky, demanding that they “bring them back.”
“Take her home now. All. Now,” the demonstrators announced, repeating a slogan six weeks in the making.
“We want answers,” said Ari Levi, 68, whose cousin Ohad Yahalomi, 49, and son Eitan, 12, were among the hostages.
“It is not normal for children to be kidnapped for 43 days. “We don’t know what the government is doing, we have no information,” he assures AFP, echoing the discontent of many relatives.
“When Eitan comes back, I will buy him the best bike in the world,” he said before bursting into tears.
AFP
Earlier in the evening, the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons announced that “all families” had reached a meeting with “the entire War Cabinet” on Monday evening, including Mr. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Meanwhile, this organization, created to provide logistical assistance to the hostages’ relatives, called, as every week, on Saturday evening for a new demonstration in the square in Tel Aviv that has become the rallying point for the cause.
On Thursday, the Israeli army announced that it had discovered the body of hostage Yehudit Weiss near al-Chifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to the army, this 65-year-old woman was “murdered by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.”
And on Friday, the army said it had found the remains of Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old soldier, while searching a building next to the same hospital. The Islamist movement claimed on Monday that it had been killed in Israeli bombings.
“We cannot lose any more,” said Yuval Haran, who initiated the march and whose mother was kidnapped along with six other family members.
AFP
“We cannot afford the luxury of waiting,” he emphasizes, calling on the government to “look the families in the eye.”
Multiple sources reported last week on a Qatar-sponsored mediation to free hostages in exchange for a ceasefire in the war.
In retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack, which Israeli authorities said killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, Israel is shelling the Gaza Strip in Hamas’s hands to “destroy” the Islamist movement.
According to the latest Hamas government report, 12,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombings since the start of the war, including 5,000 children and 3,300 women.
“Maybe military pressure will convince Hamas to release (the hostages),” hopes Orit Parnafes, a demonstrator who traveled from Raanana (center) for the march’s arrival in Jerusalem.
“But it’s very, very complicated,” admits the 54-year-old woman.
The Israeli government has so far rejected any call for a ceasefire in the conflict between Hamas, which Israel has classified as terrorist, the United States and the European Union.