Hostages Families Forum: Not sending delegation back to Cairo is ‘death sentence’ for remaining hostages

The Hostages Families Forum — representing family members of most of the remaining hostages in Gaza — slams a reported decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to send an Israeli delegation back to Cairo tomorrow for ongoing talks for a truce and hostage release.

In a statement, the forum says it is “stunned” by the decision to “thwart” the ongoing talks, adding that “it appears that some of the members of the cabinet decided to sacrifice the lives of the hostages with admitting it.”

This decision will mark “a death sentence” for the hostages remaining in captivity, it says.

The forum says that “while the negotiating team made a decision to be just a passive listener, the female hostages are being actively raped and the men are suffering abuse.” The group says that starting tomorrow it will form a “barricade” outside the Kirya Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv to protest until the prime minister and the war cabinet agree to meet with the families.