‘This is a crossroads’: Four hostage families call for deal with Hamas to free all hostages, dead and alive

As Hamas purports to name 34 hostages to be freed in a potential ceasefire deal, four hostage family members hold a press conference at the Hostages Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling on the government to bring home all hostages, both alive and dead.

Ayelet Goldin, whose brother Hadar Goldin was killed in Gaza during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge and whose body has never been returned, weeps as she begs the government not to continue its abandonment of the hostage families, and to refrain from picking and choosing which of the remaining 100 hostages would be released in a deal.

“It’s been 3,811 days,” said Goldin, counting since August 1, 2014, when her brother, an IDF soldier, was shot and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

“This is a crossroads. Understand that there is one goal here, a Jewish, Israeli, international goal to bring them all back and take advantage of this opportunity. Otherwise, all the remaining hostages will become Ron Arad and Hadar Goldin,” referring to her brother and Arad, a still-missing IDF pilot who was taken captive in Syria in 1986.

Goldin and three other hostage family members who speak are standing in front of a list of the hostages bearing their names and ages.

Yaron Or, whose son Avinatan Or, 30, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nova rave on October 7, 2023, speaks directly to his son, telling him that the government is leaving him behind, because the fathers, young men and soldiers are not priorities in the hostage lists under discussion.

“There won’t be another deal,” yells Or. “It’s either they all get out now, or Hamas will play with us for years, like they played with Hadar Goldin and other hostages.”