‘Military pressure has only killed them’: Hostage relatives, activists urge deal at mass rally

The Hostages Families Forum claims the anti-government, pro-hostage deal demonstration on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road has drawn hundreds of thousands of people.

At the rally, Anat Angrest, mother of captive soldier Matan Angrest, reveals an audio clip recently discovered in Gaza of her son pleading with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring back the hostages — the first sign of life from him since October 7.

Along with Anat Angrest, the rally features speeches from Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker; Michal Lobanov, wife of slain hostage Alex Lobanov; Raz Ben Ami, wife of hostage Ohad Ben Ami who was herself released from captivity in the November ceasefire; friends of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, identified only as Sapir and Iddo; and, via video message, Adina Bar-Shalom, daughter of the late former chief rabbi and Shas party spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef, and herself a celebrated educator.

Speaking at the rally, Einav Zangauker charges that her son was snatched and is held captive by none other than Netanyahu, “a single lying leader.”

She repeats her weeks-old statement that Mossad chief David Barnea had told her that “in the current political constellation there is no chance for a deal”— a claim denied by the spy chief.

“Deny as much as you want,” she says.

Michal Lobanov, who was pregnant when her husband Alex was kidnapped from the Re’im-area Supernova rave on October 7, tells the crowd her “heart was murdered in Gaza.”

Alex Lobanov was one of six hostages Hamas executed two weeks ago, as the IDF closed in, sparking public outrage at the government’s failure to secure a hostage deal.

“They will stay, forever and eternally, several meters underground,” says Michal Lobanov.

Her and Alex’s son Kai — born months after Lobanov was abducted — looks like a “copy of dad,” she says.

“Will he ever feel safe without his father?” she asks. The crowd yells: “Sorry!”

Raz Ben Ami says that already in November, when she was released, she knew that if the hostages “don’t come back now, they’ll come back in coffins.”

“In the meantime I was right,” she adds. “I’m sick of the military pressure, which so far has only killed them.”

Iddo and Sapir, friends of Gali and Ziv Berman from the southern Kibbutz Kfar Aza, noted that the twin captives turned 27 this week.

“Do they even know they had a birthday this week?” asks Iddo.

“Be strong. A little more and you’re home,” he says. Addressing the government, he says: “You have no moral right to continue abandoning them.”

Bar-Shalom, who has publicly criticized her late father’s party of failing to press for a deal, says in a video message that she was raised to put human life before all else.

“‘Anyone who saves a soul from Israel — it’s as though they upheld an entire world,'” she quotes the Talmud.

“Do we have to put these values aside?” she asks. “What makes us Jewish?”

Urging concessions as part of a hostage deal, Bar Shalom says: “Don’t think what will come later. The certainty of now trumps any future worries.”

Bar-Shalom’s brother Yitzhak Yosef — until recently Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi— has also publicly called for far-reaching concessions to secure the hostages’ immediate release.