From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Former hostage, wife of current captive post broken heart emojis as Israel resumes Gaza strikes
Hostage Omri Miran’s wife Lishay tweets a broken heart emoji shortly after Israel resumed airstrikes in Gaza in what appeared to amount to the collapse of the ceasefire after roughly two months.
Former hostage Noa Argamani posts the same thing.
— Noa Argamani (@ArgamaniNoa) March 18, 2025
In its statement announcing the overnight strike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel moving forward will “act against Hamas with increasing military strength, adding that the operation is designed to achieve Israel’s war aims — the dismantlement of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and the return of all remaining 59 hostages.
Most hostage families have long argued that those aims contradict each other and that a return to fighting will endanger their loved ones.
Polling over the past month has indicated that a majority of the Israeli public agrees with the hostage families and backs ending the war in exchange for the release of the hostages.
But those polls have also shown that a plurality of coalition voters back resuming the war. Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners have also threatened to collapse the government if he ends the war before Hamas has been dismantled.
The Times of Israel Community.