Dozens of hostages’ families camp outside PM’s Caesarea home overnight to demand deal
Daughter of hostage Ohad Ben Ami urges Netanyahu to take ‘brave step to bring home those still alive, and the bodies [of those killed] to be buried in Israel, as they deserve’
Dozens of relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, backed by activists, rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea Friday night, camping out overnight to protest what they said was the government’s inaction in securing the release of their loved ones.
“The days of grace in which you dragged your feet are over,” said a statement from the Hostage Families’ Forum, addressing Netanyahu.
Families called for Netanyahu to come out to speak to them.
“We’ve begged you for 105 days, and now we are demanding — stop the executions of the hostages,” the statement said.
“Prove your leadership and lead a courageous move that will advance the plan that we know is on the table. It is not about freeing hostages, it is about saving lives.”
Ela Ben Ami, whose father Ohad is still captive in Gaza after being kidnapped on October 7 alongside her mother Raz, who was released by Hamas as part of weeklong truce in late November, expressed similar concern over their hostages’ wellbeing.
“It’s gone from pleading for their return to pleading to save their lives. This is a matter of life or death,” she said at the demonstration in Caesarea.
She said the families are demanding an “international conference of Qatar, Egypt, the US and Israel, in which they sit in the same room and reach an understanding on how to bring the hostages home.”
Turning to Netanyahu, Ela Ben Ami called on him to take “a brave step to bring home those still alive, and the bodies [of those killed] to be buried in Israel, as they deserve.”
Speaking to Channel 12 news Friday, Merav Svirsky, sister of hostage Itay Svirsky who was declared this week to have been killed in Gaza, repeated her assertion that according to the IDF, Svirsky had been killed by his captors after a nearby Israeli strike.
“The goals of the war of which we are told are contradictory,” Merav Svirsky said, referring to the aim of defeating Hamas and freeing the hostages.
“We said that the fighting was endangering and killing them.”
Eli Shtivi, father of hostage Idan Shtivi, also in Caesaria, said earlier he was starting a hunger strike.
אלי שתיווי שובת רעב מול בית ראש הממשלה בקיסריה:
"עברנו את הקו האדום, ראינו את סרטון החמאס הערב, החטופים מעונים! אנחנו קוראים לראש הממשלה לחתום על עסקה ולהשיב את כל החטופים הביתה, אם לא – נחריף את צעדינו!"
הצטרפו אל משפחות החטופים מול ביתו של ראש הממשלה, הדר 61 קיסריה, עכשיו!!!… pic.twitter.com/MgUuCqetYY
— ש????ולי ????️????️???? Sh????uLi (@Shaulirena) January 19, 2024
“The hostages are being tortured,” he said. “We can’t wait… We’ve passed 100 days, it was our red line. From here our actions will become increasingly severe.”
The protest came after Hebrew media reports said Netanyahu unilaterally decided Wednesday to toughen a series of guidelines set recently by the government for a potential deal to release the remaining hostages held by the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group, angering fellow members of the war cabinet.
As Sunday marked 100 days since the beginning of the war and the hostages’ abduction, the war cabinet was reportedly split on the parameters it would accept for a hostage deal. War cabinet observer Gadi Eisenkot was pushing for a long truce in exchange for the hostages’ freedom, which his National Unity party leader Benny Gantz supported, but Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were strongly opposed.
Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly said that the only way to get the hostages back is to keep applying military pressure on Gaza by continuing the war.
A deal in November secured the release of 105 hostages during a weeklong truce. As part of the deal, Israel agreed to extend the truce by one day for every 10 hostages that were released. In return for every Israeli hostage, three female or underage Palestinians were released from prison.
In another agreement this week, Israel secured the delivery of essential medications into Gaza for some of the hostages who suffer from chronic diseases and require prescription medication. A senior Hamas official said that for every box of medicine going into Gaza for hostages, there were 1,000 additional boxes for Palestinians in Gaza.
Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on October 7 which resulted in the deaths of some 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians, and with around 250 others taken hostage
It is believed that 132 of those now remain in Gaza, though not all of them are alive. Four hostages were released prior to the November deal, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 27 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
One more person has been listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
