Hostage families tell Regev not to use loved ones’ names or photos in Oct. 7 ceremony
A hundred family members and released hostages urge transportation minister to reconsider holding controversial state ceremony, as outcry mounts
More than a hundred released hostages and family members of those still in Gaza captivity wrote to Transportation Minister Miri Regev on Wednesday, demanding that she not use the names or photos of their loved ones during the planned state ceremony to mark the October 7 Hamas attack, and urging her again to reconsider holding the event altogether.
“We will not lend a hand to the cynical use of the names of the hostages, whom the state has abandoned for close to a year.
“Therefore, we demand that you not use, as part of the ceremony, any photos of the relatives of the families listed below, whether they were taken hostage or murdered, and that you not share any details about them, including mentions of their names,” the letter read, according to Maariv.
At the end of the letter, the families urged Regev to reconsider holding the event altogether.
The signatories to the letter were affiliated with the Hostage Families Forum, the largest umbrella group for hostages’ loved ones. The forum has called on Regev to step aside from planning the event, which is currently slated to take place on October 7 in the southern city of Ofakim.
It is meant to commemorate one year since the October 7, 2023, attack, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault, and starting the ongoing war.
Regev, who has been responsible for state ceremonies in the years that she has been in government over the last decade, has been criticized for leading the ceremony at a time when 104 hostages, living and dead, remain in Hamas captivity.
Many of the hostage families hold the government responsible for the failure to bring back the remaining hostages, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political allies of sabotaging prospects for a hostage-ceasefire deal.
“We ask that you reconsider holding the ceremony, and its management by the government, whose responsibility is to bring, first and foremost, an end to the war and the return of the hostages, some to their homes and the embrace of their families, and others to be buried.”
Leaders of Gaza border communities have accused Regev of failing to communicate with them about the event, and several kibbutzim — Nir Oz, Yad Mordechai, Nirim, Be’eri and Kfar Aza — have announced a boycott of the ceremony.
Meanwhile, an alternative ceremony organized by survivors of the attack is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, to hear speeches by bereaved families, former hostages, and residents of the Gaza border communities. Israeli musical artists are also expected to participate.
Last week, President Isaac Herzog offered to replace the government’s ceremony with one under his purview at the President’s Residence that would be devoid of politics and include uniting state symbols, but Regev accused him of “picking a side” and insisted that she would be the one to organize the ceremony.
It is believed that 104 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 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 30 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.
Efforts by Israel to arrive at a deal with Hamas, in which the terror group would release the remaining captives in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian security prisoners, have been held on-and-off since the end of the weeklong truce in November.
Earlier this month, the United States presented a “bridging proposal” to address the central issues believed to be preventing a deal — security control of the Gaza-Egypt border and measures in the center of the enclave to prevent armed gunmen moving north, as civilians return to their homes.
Despite optimistic statements about the proposal, no deal has yet materialized. An Israeli delegation is expected to resume the negotiations in Doha on Wednesday, after talks in Cairo on Sunday ended with neither Israel nor Hamas agreeing to several compromises presented by mediators.
