'Let the old year and its abandonment come to an end'

Hostage families set up Rosh Hashanah dinner table outside PM’s Caesarea home

Relatives of Gaza hostages mark a somber New Year with events near Netanyahu’s private residence and at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv

A Rosh Hashanah dinner table set up outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Caesarea home on October 2, 2024. (Oded Engel)
A Rosh Hashanah dinner table set up outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Caesarea home on October 2, 2024. (Oded Engel)

Family members of hostages held in Gaza set up a Rosh Hashanah dinner table in Caesarea near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence, in a solemn protest highlighting the absence of their loved ones as they marked the start of the Jewish New Year on Wednesday evening

As the sun set over Israel, relatives of the hostages and other activists gathered around the long table, draped in a white cloth, with the words “let the old year and its abandonment come to an end” emblazoned down the middle in large yellow and black letters. One place was laid at the table for each person still held captive by Hamas, 362 days after the October 7 terror onslaught last year.

The table was situated in the middle of a mock cemetery, also set up by the relatives of the hostages, who placed imitation graves throughout the space to represent each hostage who has been murdered in captivity.

A sign at the entrance invited protesters to step into the “Mr. Abandonment Benjamin Netanyahu Cemetery.”

The protest in Caesarea was attended by Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker was abducted on October 7, as well as relatives of Ofer Calderon, who also remains hostage in Gaza, and relatives of Avrahaum Munder, who was murdered in Hamas captivity.

Yifat Calderon, cousin of Ofer, lowered the Israeli flag to half-mast, accompanied by the blowing of the Shofar — or ram’s horn — that is traditionally sounded on Rosh Hashanah.

A sign reading ‘Mr. Abandonment Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cemetery’ is seen at a protest dinner marking the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah near Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea, October 2, 2024. (Gil Levin/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Zangauker, who has become a prominent activist and public figure campaigning for the return of her son and the other hostages, told the crowd about her experiences over the last year, and how her life had changed in the blink of an eye.

“Last year, we sat around one table, together with Matan, his sisters, and Ilana [Gritzewsky, Matan’s partner who was also kidnapped on October 7 and released in November],” she says. “We had everything, a warm, loving, laughing family. Just days later, my life was taken from me. My son, who is also my best friend, was abducted.”

“It’s been a year in which I haven’t slept, I haven’t eaten… when I understood that the prime minister wasn’t interested in bringing Matan, I decided to bring him back myself,” she continued, recalling the journey she embarked on to become one of the leading figures in the fight for the hostages.

“I decided to spend my Rosh Hashanah here,” Zangauker said, “because my life has become a battle.”

She ended her speech with her wish for the coming year: “To hug Matan so tightly,” and to “sit at the same table next Rosh Hashanah and tell him about all that we did for him.״

Protesters also set up a large installation spelling out the word “hope” in Hebrew, which they set on fire.

Elsewhere in Israel, families of captives who chose not to take part in the more public protest in Caesarea gathered inside a building at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to mark the holiday.

The meal was attended by Yocheved Lifshitz, who was herself released from Hamas captivity on October 23 and whose husband Oded remains in captivity, as well as several of her family members, according to the Ynet news site.

Protesters gather around a Rosh Hashanah dinner table set up outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Caesarea home on October 2, 2024. (Rei Ash/Pro-Democracy Movement)

Meirav Leshem Gonen — whose daughter Romi Gonen was kidnapped on October 7 — told Ynet that she wished Rosh Hashanah could be spent “with the whole family.”

“I wish Romi would return to us before Yom Kippur,” she said, “that’s what will give us the victory.”

Nathalie Ben Ami, whose father Ohad Ben Ami was abducted from his home on Kibbutz Be’eri, expressed a similar longing to be reunited with her loved ones once more, saying she hoped that her father “doesn’t feel alone there” in Gaza.

“No one still thought they would be there,” she said of the hostages, “it doesn’t make sense.”

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.

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