Families highlight plight of child captives during rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum’s weekly rally at Hostages Square highlights the plight of parents and children in Hamas captivity, ahead of International Children’s Day this coming Wednesday.

“Let me tell you about my children and their rights,” says Bat Sheva Yahalomi, the wife of hostage Ohad Yahalomi and mother of former captive Eitan Yahalomi. Both hostages were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.

Eitan, 12, was “held alone for 16 days, surrounded by armed terrorists, who told him that the State of Israel and Nir Oz are no longer,” recounts the boy’s mother.

She says that since Eitan was released after 52 days in captivity, he has suffered from nightmares and hair loss.

“We’ll get over it, but that can happen only after his father and the rest of the hostages come back,” she adds.

“The last image Eitan and his two sisters have of their father is the image of him strewn on the floor, injured and bleeding, after he left the safe room to protect them,” Bat Sheva Yahalomi continues.

“What about their right to a father?” she asks. “What about their right to just be a child, their father’s child?”

Alon Nimrodi, father of captive soldier Tamir Nimrodi — “I’m proud of Tamir, not proud of the new title” — says he has trouble with one line of Hatikva, the national anthem: “to be a free nation in our land.”

“We’re not a free nation in our land,” he says. “A 101 hostages are there there in the gutter — how are we free, how?”

He says that this week, the family marked Tamir’s 20th birthday — his second in captivity — by donating care packages to the needy, the homeless, at-risk youth and wounded soldiers.

Alon Nimrodi says such charitableness aligns with his son’s values.

“These valued are absent among our decision-makers,” says the father. “They have given up on the hostages.”

The rally also features speeches from Ofri Bibas, whose brother Yarden, sister-in-law Shiri, nephews 5-year-old Ariel and 1 year-old Kfir are still in Gaza; Avital Dekel-Chen, wife of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen; and Meital Weiss, daughter of hostage Ilan Weiss.