From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Family, friends of hostage Segev Kalfon hold sit-in in hometown of Dimona
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
Family, friends and supporters of hostage Segev Kalfon gather in Dimona, Kalfon’s hometown, for a Shift 101 sit-in, a first since the protest group began gathering in late 2024.
Galit Kalfon, Segev’s mother, calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently in Washington, DC, to make a responsible and moral decision regarding all the hostages.
“No one should be there; they are all humanitarian cases, and they are all suffering,” says Kalfon. “I can’t imagine some coming back and some not. Enough! We want to breathe!”
Segev, 27, was taken hostage at the Nova music festival with his friend Asaf Harush. The two tried to escape together by car but encountered armed terrorists on Route 232. Harush managed to get away, and Segev was kidnapped to Gaza.
Dimona Mayor Benny Bitton, the devoted Likud mayor of the hardscrabble desert town since 2013, speaks at the sit-in, and says he hopes that Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump will bring all the hostages home “in one go.”
“We don’t want it in phases,” he says.
“I can’t imagine having the strength to decide who gets to come home and who doesn’t,” says Bitton, referring to the current working plan to bring home 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 hostages in the first stage of the ceasefire.
“I told the prime minister, ‘As your friend, I also support ending the war, but the hostages must be brought home,'” says Bitton.
Kalfon’s friends appear together at the sit-in, with one speaking for all of them.
“Something within our group of friends has broken, shattered — and only Segev can make it whole again,” says one of his friends. “We all pray every day for Segev’s return.”
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