Hostage families symbolically breach fence near Gaza as they call out to loved ones
Captive’s cousin says he’s ‘not sure it was the right decision’ to heed army’s call to turn back, pledges to be back with ‘hundreds, thousands’ next time
Several relatives of hostages holding a protest event near the Gaza border on Thursday symbolically breached a kibbutz’s perimeter fence and attempted to run toward their loved ones held in the Strip before heeding pleas by security forces to return to Nirim.
Video from the scene showed about two dozen of the relatives crossing Kibbutz Nirim’s perimeter fence and striding toward the Gaza border barrier — located some two kilometers away — wearing t-shirts with bloody handprints on them and carrying signs saying “Their blood is on the hands of the government” and posters with the faces of their relatives.
“If the government won’t bring them back, then we will. If the government won’t make a deal, then we will get them,” said one relative who identified himself as Omri.
Others screamed “Save them.”
“The families in their great pain breached the fence to Gaza and ran toward the Gaza Strip to get as close to their loved ones as possible,” the Hostage Families Forum said in a statement, citing frustration over 11 months of unsuccessful pleas that the government secure a comprehensive hostage deal.
A short while later, they heeded calls from the military to turn back to Nirim.
At no point did the families come close to breaching the Gaza border barrier or entering the Strip. The relatives of the hostages only ran along a path adjacent to the kibbutz’s perimeter fence, which is an access road to nearby fields.
“I’m still not sure if it was the right decision not to keep going toward Gaza,” Gil Dickmann, cousin of hostage Carmel Gat, told Ynet. “Next time we’ll be more — hundreds, thousands — and we won’t stop.”
The families had gathered at the Gaza border to call, yell and scream with the hope their loved ones being held in captivity would hear them.
With words of prayer, beseeching God, and, at times, berating the Israeli government, parents, siblings, children and grandparents called out to their loved ones, held hostage for 328 days in the tunnels and hideouts of Gaza.
“Edan Alexander,” called Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of the 20-year-old lone soldier from Tenafly, New Jersey, who was taken captive on October 7. “It’s Grandma and Grandpa, you are our soul, do you hear us? Idanaleh! Mom and Dad are waiting for you, we’re worried about you and waiting for your return home. Be strong, you’re strong, survive, we’re doing everything we can for you and for all the other hostages.”
Breaking: Hostages’ families are running toward Gaza, calling for their loved ones who are held for 328 by Hamas terrorists. @KnessetT @bringhomenow pic.twitter.com/uovQn1lLK7
— רותם גולן – Rotem Golan (@RotemGolan_) August 29, 2024
“Nimrod, Dad is speaking, we’re here at the border,” called Yehuda Cohen, whose son, Nimrod, was a soldier when he was taken hostage on October 7 from the Nahal Oz army base. “I will not give up until you come home. I will run everywhere in the world until we have a deal that will free you and the other hostages.”
????Emotional footage of families with loved ones held hostage by #Hamas terrorists in #Gaza for 102 days & counting.
The families set up loudspeakers near the Gaza border, yelling into megaphones & hoping that their loved ones can hear them. #BringThemHome pic.twitter.com/xvzLAimE8O
— CIJA (@CIJAinfo) January 16, 2024
Some parents sobbed, including Shira Albag, mother of Liri Albag, 19, one of the female surveillance soldiers held captive. Liri’s sister screamed into the microphone, begging her not to give up.
Eli Shtivi, father of hostage Idan Shtivi, draped himself in a Jewish prayer shawl as he called out to his son, telling him that Israel would give up on controlling the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates Gaza from Egypt, in order to get him and the other hostages home, referring to one of the sticking points in the current hostage negotiations.
"It's Mama, Hersh” shouted Rachel Goldberg-Polin into the speakers, while standing at the Gaza border.
“It’s day 328. We are all here, all the families of the remaining 107 hostages. Hersh, we are working day and night, and we will never stop.
I need you to know that I am giving… pic.twitter.com/fc66SZy0zI— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) August 29, 2024
“It’s Mama, Hersh,” called Rachel Goldberg-Polin in English, speaking to her son, Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken captive from a field shelter near the Supernova desert rave on October 7.
“It’s day 328. We are all here. All the families of the remaining 107 hostages,” she said, blessing her son, as she told him that she was giving him the traditional blessing she offers during her morning prayers and on Friday nights.
“May God bless you and keep you. May God’s light shine upon you, and may God be gracious to you. May you feel God’s Presence within you always, and may you find peace,” said Goldberg-Polin.
It is believed that 103 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The shock assault saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people amid the abductions.
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 31 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.
