‘Time to finish the job’: Speakers at Hostages Square demand deal to free captives all at once

During the Hostage and Missing Families Forum rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, speakers demand Israel reach a deal that would see a single-phase release of the 101 remaining captives. They say that any other route would see a group of hostages left behind indefinitely.
The demand for a single-phase release, also mentioned in the Forum’s press release announcing the rally, was absent from the group’s statements in earlier rounds of negotiations. Israel’s May 27 proposal, which formed the basis for subsequent talks, envisioned a multi-phase release, with female, elderly, and injured hostages released first.
The negotiations were renewed this week following the death of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, after a roughly two-month pause in the talks.
Dani Miran, father of hostage Omri Miran, says the hostages must be released at once, since “we don’t want any more Ron Arads” — referring to an Israeli Air Force soldier missing since 1986 and believed to have been held by Hezbollah.
“Sinwar has gone up to the sky,” says Miran. “It’s time to finish the job and reach agreements.”
He says government ministers have shown themselves to be “impotent, lacking the capacity to think, lacking the capacity to discuss bringing back the hostages but with great capacity for their own political survival.”

Nira Sharabi, wife of killed hostage Yossi Sharabi and sister-in-law of hostage Eli Sharabi says every day Israel fails to “choose a deal to bring back all the hostages” is “another day the State of Israel chooses not to sanctify life.”
“Let us wake up to a different reality,” she says.
“I refuse to accept this reality. I will continue to refuse, and the nation of Israel refuses with me,” she says.
Other speakers are former hostage Moran Stela Yanai; Yifat Hayman, mother of hostage Inbar Hayman; and Avivit Yablonka, sister of Hanan Yablonka, whose body was recovered in May from Gaza.
The rally also features a video greeting from the family of Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi, who turned 24 on Saturday.
Joshi came to Israel as an agriculture student a month before being kidnapped from Kibbutz Alumim.
Kumar Shrestha, Nepal’s acting ambassador to Israel, speaks at Hostages Square and calls for a hostage and ceasefire deal.
He expresses the Nepalese embassy’s gratitude to the Israeli government for its “continued efforts in finding Bipin,” and to the Hostage Families Forum for “consistently advocating for all hostages in Gaza.”
As the event wraps up, actor Lior Ashkenazi, the regular MC of the Forum’s rallies, strikes a combative tone untypical of the Hostages Square rallies.
“Whoever turns their back on the hostages is a traitor!” he yells. “Anyone who refuses to act now for their return is a fifth column!”
The 500-odd crowd disperses after a chorus of “Hatikva,” the national anthem. Some people remain, chanting: “Everyone — now! In a deal — now!”
The Times of Israel Community.