Freed hostage concerned for Israel’s future ‘if we are ready to give up on’ the captives

Speaking at a Jerusalem rally for a hostage-ceasefire deal, former Hamas hostage Iair Horn — whose brother Eitan remains captive — breaks down into tears.

“I was in Hamas captivity for 498 days. That has already become an automatic sentence that I say whenever I start speaking, and that scares me,” he says with shaky breath.

Horn says that when walking down the street in Israel he sees the faces of hostages, alongside his neighbors from Kibbutz Nir Oz, who were murdered and kidnapped by Hamas during the terror group’s October 7, 2023, massacre.

“I don’t know what this symptom is called; I didn’t check. I just walk down the street and think I recognize Aviv Atzili, or Elad Katzir, or Chaim [Peri],” he says, naming murdered hostages from his kibbutz while wiping away tears.

He voices concern for the future of Israel if the remaining hostages are killed in captivity. “What will happen to our country if we are ready to give up on people? Because it feels to me as if it’s alright to sacrifice, and that’s what is happening,” Horn says.

He describes the horrors of being held captive in Gaza, recalling his experience of airstrikes while trapped in the enclave’s tunnels with his captors.

“You start hearing bombings, explosions, and they get louder and louder until they [the captors] get a phone call, and then you hear that you have to run. So you run inside the tunnels, and you have to trust the same terrorist who kidnapped you from your home,” he recounts.

Once, while held in a basement with several other hostages, Horn says he heard a very loud explosion “just a meter away.”

“The soldiers are doing their job, I respect and love them and we’re all human, and I understand that they want to protect us. But a millimeter to the right or to the left with the joystick and it would have meant that some eight to ten hostages would no longer be here,” he says.

“I survived this and I got out on a deal, and it’s likely that a deal is the right, and only way to bring back all of the hostages,” Horn continues, calling on the government to negotiate a hostage-ceasefire agreement.

After the speeches wrap up outside Netanyahu’s official residence, hostage families lead protesters to the premier’s private home further down the street, where the demonstration continues.

Demonstrators have set up tents in the area, in protest of the IDF’s ongoing ground operation aimed at conquering Gaza City, which hostage families have warned may put their loved ones in further danger.