From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 6, 2025
‘Don’t leave any hostage behind’: Families beg Trump, government to close deal to bring all 100 captives home
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Meirav Leshem Gonen, whose daughter Romi Gonen was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, from the Nova rave, begs Israel’s government and US President-elect Donald Trump to make sure that any hostage deal includes all 100 hostages still held in Gaza.
Speaking in English at a press conference at the Hostages Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv, Leshem Gonen directs her comments to Trump:
“You are the most powerful leader in the world… Make sure that the first hostage will come out and also the last one. Please don’t leave any hostage behind, please make sure all hostages are coming back home.”
The press conference comes after a list of 34 names of Israeli hostages held in Gaza who could be released in the first, so-called humanitarian stage of an elusive ceasefire agreement with Hamas was published by a Saudi news outlet earlier today.
Israel swiftly downplayed the roster, saying that it had in fact provided the same list to the mediating countries in July. Hamas has refused to provide information on the state of the hostages, which Israel insists on getting before any agreement moves forward.
The Hostages Families Forum publishes and tweets a list of all 100 hostages held in Gaza, headlined: “The real list of humanitarian hostages is revealed”:
100 חטופים.
100 שמות.
כולם הומניטריים. #עדהחטוףהאחרון#מחזיריםאותםהביתהעכשיו#הגיעהזמן#אתכולםעכשיו pic.twitter.com/8Ec53xe9sA— מטה המשפחות להחזרת החטופים והנעדרים (@BringThemHome23) January 6, 2025
Yotam Cohen, brother of Nimrod Cohen, an IDF soldier taken captive to Gaza on October 7, compares the idea of a hostage list to the actions of the Nazis during the Holocaust.
“My brother Nimrod and the other men are fighting to stay alive. No one has any right to make them stay and suffer; there should be no selection here of who gets to live or die,” says Cohen.
“We are all living beings. There’s no question of who’s worth more,” he says. “Everyone who was taken hostage has to be given back.”
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