‘Let my people go’: Hostage families stage Passover-themed demonstration near Gaza border
Demonstrators wear burlap sacks to represent Jewish slavery before the exodus from Egypt, call on government to do more to reach a deal for hostages’ release
Hundreds of people marched on Friday near Kibbutz Urim, in the south near the Gaza border, to demand the release of the 129 men, women and children held hostage by terror groups in the Strip since October 7.
Marching under the banner “Let my people go” ahead of the upcoming Passover holiday, the demonstrators held cards with numbers representing the 189 days the hostages have been held captive, along with photos of the abductees.
In photos shared by activists, the demonstrators can be seen wearing hessian sacks to represent Jewish slavery before the exodus from Egypt, which is celebrated on the Passover holiday, and yellow sashes to represent the hostages.
The march ended at Eshkol Park, about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away from Urim.
“The fact that we are standing here, half a year after October 7, and the hostages are not home yet, is a terrible failure on the part of the State of Israel,” Einav Moses, daughter-in-law of hostage Gadi Moses, told those gathered.
“I call on the prime minister, and I say: No more. We are going into the holiday of freedom, and we cannot celebrate when 133 Israeli citizens are being denied basic human rights,” she said.
בני משפחות חטופים יצאו הבוקר יחד עם חברי המועצה האזורית אשכול לצעדה מצומת אורים ועד פארק אשכול, בקריאה לשחרור החטופים. במהלך הצעדה, שהתקיימה "בסימן יציאת מצרים", לבשו הצועדים בגדי עבדים.@shapira_nitzan
קרדיט צילום: דוברות אשכול pic.twitter.com/qx0WbNP3qu
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) April 12, 2024
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum also held a Passover-themed event, on Thursday in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Survivors of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Kibbutz Nir Oz gathered Thursday morning in the kibbutz dining hall, which was set up for a mock Passover seder — now with dozens of kibbutz members gone.
They shared stories of their lost and missing loved ones and called on the state to bring the hostages home.
One hundred and twenty-nine of 253 hostages taken on October 7 remain in captivity in Gaza — not all of them alive.
The war erupted when thousands of Hamas terrorists poured across the border with Israel in a mass assault on October 7, during which they killed almost 1,200 people and abducted 253. Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas and free the hostages, half of whom remain in captivity in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 33,000 people have been killed in the fighting, an unverified figure that includes some 13,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. The IDF says it killed 1,000 Hamas and other terrorists inside Israel on and immediately after October 7. Some 260 IDF soldiers have been killed in Gaza.
