Thousands attend hostage deal rally outside UN headquarters in New York

Thousands of people attended a rally in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York earlier today to call for a hostage release-ceasefire deal, the Hostages Families Forum says.

The rally, which coincided with the start of the 79th UN General Assembly this week, called for world leaders to pay attention to the plight of the hostages in Gaza and featured speeches from released hostages and relatives of those still in captivity.

“Despite the hostages’ nearly year-long captivity—in violation of international law and without access to Red Cross visits or essential medical care—their plight remains conspicuously absent from the Assembly’s agenda,” the forum says, adding that it was demanding a deal “that will put an end to the ongoing suffering and pain in the region.”

Aviva Siegel, who was released from Hamas captivity in November and whose husband Keith is still hostage, says that she was held with girls who were being abused by their terrorist captors.

“I was with the girls who were touched, who were beaten. I saw them torture Keith,” she says. “I wanted to scream for them while I wasn’t allowed to feel, cry, move, or even talk.”

She says that the issue of the hostages is not just about herself and her husband “or the other 100 hostages who are still there,” but that it’s about “good overcoming evil, bringing justice to the world, and setting innocent people free.”

Or Gat, whose sister Carmel Gat was executed by Hamas in a tunnel under Rafah late last month, addresses her from the stage, apologizing for how “those who should have seen you didn’t” even while she “cared about everyone” she was kept in captivity with.

Yamit Ashkenazi, sister of hostage Doron Steinbacher, warns that “time is running out” for her sister and the other hostages. “The shocking murder of six hostages earlier this month has made this painfully clear. We must do everything possible to save my little sister and all the hostages.”

Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather Oded Lifshitz is one of the oldest hostages held by Hamas, asks for forgiveness from “all of my family and the residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz who were in the kibbutz during the greatest tragedy in our country.”

“I apologize that we were unable to save you from the horrors that our beloved community experienced on that cursed day. I am sorry that we have abandoned so many of you in the aftermath,” he says.

The rally also featured speeches by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and was attended by “hundreds of organizations and synagogues” the Hostages Families Forum says.

During the rally, an interfaith prayer for the safe return of the hostages was held by New York priests and rabbis.