83-year-old bereaved mother starts hunger strike outside Knesset to demand hostage deal
Anti-war activist Orna Shimoni says she initially kept her decision secret from her children and has told them not to treat her if she falls ill
A veteran Israeli anti-war activist whose soldier son was killed in Lebanon in 1997, launched a hunger strike outside the Knesset on Friday, urging the government to bring back the hostages.
Orna Shimoni, 83, noted that she was starting the hunger strike the day after the anniversary of her son Eyal’s death.
“I decided to go on a hunger strike to bring back all the hostages at the end of the memorial evening in his memory,” said Shimoni, according to Israel’s Kibbutz Movement, as she urged people to come and join her outside the Knesset in Jerusalem.
Shimoni, who has been active in campaigning for the return of soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, told the Ynet news site that she had initially kept her decision to hunger strike a secret, and has forbidden her children to treat her, should it cause her to fall ill.
“My children don’t stop crying,” she said. “Six million people need to come out here and show the lawmakers that the majority of the people want to bring back the hostages, ” she said.
“I promise I will not die hunger striking. I want masses of people to come,” she said.
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A number of relatives of hostages held in Gaza have launched temporary hunger strikes over the past 11 months.
Shimoni was a longtime member of the Four Mothers group, which campaigned for an Israeli withdrawal from the so-called security zone in southern Lebanon. The group was dismantled after the IDF withdrew in 2000.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
