From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
As fighting resumes, bereaved hostage relative warns captives could stay missing in Gaza forever
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Carmit Palty Katzir, whose brother Elad was killed in captivity, speaks at the gathering outside the Knesset protesting the resumption of Israeli strikes in Gaza. Her father, Rami Katzir, was killed on October 7, 2023. Her mother, Hanna, was taken hostage and released in November 2023, and then died a year later. Her brother’s remains were recovered in Gaza last April.
“If a deal had happened in time, we, the families who paid the heaviest price of all, could be living a different reality. We raise a red flag and warn: The path the government is choosing raises the risk for the ‘Ron Arads,'” she says, referring to the Israeli Air Force officer who has been classified as missing in action since 1986. “The circle of bereaved families will widen and for naught. We must return to the negotiating table to reach a full agreement, in which all the hostages will be released in return for the end of the war. If that doesn’t happen, the blood of the next hostage will be on your hands.”
“I want to say to you: Elad could have been released to my embrace. We have to return Hadar Goldin and Tamir Adar for burial,” she adds, referring respectively to a soldier killed during the 2014 Gaza war and a Kibbutz Nir Oz resident killed fighting terrorists on October 7, 2023, both of whose bodies are held in the coastal enclave.
