The families of the Israeli hostages and thousands of sympathizers arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday, at the end of a five-day march to question the government about the fate of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
“We are waiting for them to meet us, we are waiting for them to tell us how they are going to do it,” said Noam Alon, 25, holding up a photo of his kidnapped girlfriend Inbar. “We can’t wait any longer, so we’re asking them to do it now, no matter the cost.”
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Approximately 240 people Several people – from babies to elderly people – are believed to be in the Gaza Strip after they were kidnapped by the Islamist group on October 7 in a raid on villages and military bases in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people. Many relatives and friends of the missing fear that they will be harmed in Israeli attacks on Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas.
The government expects the offensive to improve the chances of retrieving the hostages, possibly through a prisoner exchange with the help of an intermediary. “I feel like people think they have time, but for babies and older people with complex needs there is no time, time passes quickly,” she said, said London-based artist Sharone Lifschitz, whose 83-year-old year old father was kidnapped.
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Many Israelis blame their government for being blindsided by the Hamas attack. Among the protesters who traveled to Jerusalem was centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, who largely supported the war but called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign. Hamas, which earlier in the war threatened to execute the hostages in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, has since said that some of the hostages were killed in attacks on Gaza.