At Jerusalem’s weekly hostage families rally, speakers strike a cautiously hopeful tone following the release of four female hostages — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag — from Hamas captivity earlier today.
“Liri, Daniella, Naama, Karina and Agam were among the soldiers that protected us that morning [on October 7]. Today, we succeeded in returning four of them,” says Shai Dickman, the cousin of slain hostage Carmel Gat.
Agam Berger, another surveillance soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, is still held captive in Gaza.
“Now that the struggle is starting to bear fruit, we will not take our foot off the gas,” she urges.
A protest organizer reminds the crowd that “a second phase [of the deal] is still not secure; we constantly hear threats that it will not happen.”
Ella Mor, whose niece Avigail Idan was just four years old when she was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and released five weeks later, charges opponents of the hostage deal with betraying the “basic values of Israel and the Jewish people.”
“We fight to live, we don’t live to fight,” she says, urging the Netanyahu government to continue implementing the ceasefire deal.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this