Ex-hostages urge protesters to keep demonstrating: ‘We don’t have the privilege to rest’

Speaking at Hostages Square, former hostage Gadi Mozes, who returned from Hamas captivity in January as part of the last Gaza ceasefire, says protesters “do not have the privilege to rest” after US President Donald Trump’s truce proposal picked up steam over the weekend.

“We do not have the privilege to rest — the protests are important,” says the 80-year-old, who was the oldest hostage to return alive. “Take to the streets or anywhere where you can have an influence.”

He says that for the first time since his release, he is hopeful for a deal.

“If both sides did indeed accept President Trump’s diktats… this is the time to cease fire and focus on bringing back all the hostages and ending the war,” he says. “For too long, it seemed like returning the hostages and ending the war were impossible. Now is the time to make the impossible possible.”

Omer Shem Tov, who was released in February, alludes to Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, marked by a fast on Thursday.

He says he asked for forgiveness “from everyone who is still there in the dark, the fear, the bombing, the thirst and hunger. They didn’t choose to fast.”

On Tuesday, Israelis will mark two years since the Hamas onslaught that sparked the war. Shem Tov says that for the captives, it will be “another day that feels like an eternity.”

“They’re not a finished story,” he says. “The only day we should mark for them is the day they return.”