Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since its Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil left Tel Aviv on Tuesday for a five-day march to Jerusalem. Some called for “an agreement on the hostages NOW.”
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This 63-kilometer march through the center of the country will take participants to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Saturday evening to demand from him “the immediate release of all hostages,” the family forum said. Hostages and missing persons.
AFP
According to Israeli authorities, this organization was hastily founded after October 7, when 1,200 people were killed and about 240 kidnapped by the Palestinian Islamist movement. It is multiplying its events and speeches to maintain pressure on the government and maintain media attention.
Yuval Haran, whose father Avshalom was killed and whose mother Shoshan was kidnapped along with six other family members, is behind the new initiative, organizers said.
“We want to hear why our families have not returned home yet,” he said during a news conference at the start of the march.
AFP
Carrying black T-shirts with portraits of the hostages or posters, more than a hundred relatives and their supporters set off at midday from the square of the Museum of Fine Arts in Tel Aviv, which had become the focus of their cause.
Accompanied by the police, the demonstrators left the Israeli metropolis via the highway.
“Now an agreement on the hostages,” several protesters said on signs, while recent statements from both Hamas and the Israeli government suggested negotiations were underway.
On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu raised the possibility of an agreement to release hostages in an interview with NBC.
On Monday, Hamas’s armed wing accused Israeli authorities of “postponing” discussions through Qatar’s mediation about the possible release of dozens of hostages in exchange for the “200 children and 75 women” detained by Israel.
In a press release, the forum calls on the government to tell the families what “demands” it has “put on the table” with a view to an “agreement to release the hostages from Gaza.”
According to Danny Elgarat, quoted by the forum and whose brother Itzik is among the hostages listed, the government is engaging in “psychological terror” against the families by telling them “nothing” about the talks.
Mr Elgarat calls on the government to “bring everyone (the hostages) back together” and rejects a “partial agreement”.
“If there is something concrete to share, we will do it,” Benjamin Netanyahu responded in a statement.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced the death of Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old soldier held hostage in Gaza, a day after Hamas broadcast an image depicting her as “killed by an Israeli bombing.” .
After the Oct. 7 attack, Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and fires shells from that Palestinian territory. According to the Hamas Health Ministry, the bombings killed more than 11,300 people, mostly civilians.