At Jerusalem rally, freed hostage Itay Regev talks of Hamas psychological warfare

After a moment of silence honoring hostages held by terror groups in Gaza since October 7 falls over the crowd at a Jerusalem demonstration, freed hostage Itay Regev begins to recall his time in Hamas captivity.

Regev says that in Gaza, Hamas “tries to convince the hostages that the government has given up on them,” as a psychological warfare tactic.

Thousands of Israeli demonstrators are gathered outside Knesset are chanting: “There is nothing more important, every hostage has to return,” and demanding an immediate hostage deal.

After standing silently on stage for a few minutes with tape with the number 184 covering their mouths — marking the number of days past since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught — a group of female relatives of the hostages let out a long, bloodcurdling scream, to which the audience responds with a scream of its own.

Thousands of protesters gather to call for hostage deal half a year after October 7 in a mass demonstration outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on April 7, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi opens the rally, urging the government not to “close its heart” to the 129 hostages remaining in Gaza.

“Redeeming captives isn’t politics, it’s being Jewish,” he says.

Organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the rally is being held alongside dozens of others across the world, including in New York, where hostage families met this morning with the city’s mayor Eric Adams.