Hostage rescued from Gaza airs heartfelt plea for deal, as rallies mark 9 months of war
Almog Meir Jan says he wants moms to be able hug their kids, ‘like I can now,’ as families blast government; mother of captive soldier says Hamas video proves son was abducted alive
Tens of thousands of people protested throughout the country on Saturday evening, demanding the release of hostages held by Hamas, backed by rescued hostage Almog Meir Jan, who called on leaders to enable other captives to experience the same joy he had when he was reunited with his loved ones.
The latest plea to the government from families of hostages in Gaza to accept the newest proposal for a hostage-ceasefire deal came as Hamas said it had dropped a key demand that Israel give an upfront commitment to end the war in Gaza — though it indicated it was seeking guarantees to that effect from mediators.
Amid the increased pressure on the government to bring a hostage deal to fruition, anti-government protesters said ahead of Saturday’s weekly demonstration that they would be upping the ante by holding a series of protests and events over the next week, starting with dozens of rallies across Israel on Sunday to mark nine months of war in Gaza.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, said at a weekly address in Tel Aviv after Hamas’s announcement that she felt hope for the first time in months that she could soon “hug my Matan.”
Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she said: “We’ve seen how you’ve torpedoed deals again and again at the moment of truth. Don’t you dare break our hearts again.” She reiterated that the prime minister has a duty to return the hostages she said he abandoned on October 7.
Calling on the public to support the potential to bring home the remaining 116 hostages from Gaza, Zangauker said, “Only public pressure will bring about a deal. Take to the streets with us.”
Echoing Zangauker and citing repeated opinion polls, Danny Elgarat, whose brother Itzik is held captive, declared that the public was with the hostage families and in favor of reaching a deal with Hamas.
“The people believe that the country won’t recover without a return of all the hostages. A group of extremists in the government, cut off from the people, want to sentence them to death. Leadership is expected to act according to the will of the people and to hear the cry of the public,” he said.
Ayala Metzger, whose father-in-law Yoram was confirmed last month to have died in captivity, called on those close to Netanyahu to stop him from blocking a deal.
“It is your duty to ensure this deal is carried out. You can’t miss this opportunity. If Netanyahu raises difficulties or puts spokes in the wheels of the negotiations, come out to the public and tell the truth,” she said.
In an attempt to stay ahead of the inevitable pressure that Netanyahu will face from his populist coalition partners, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz told the premier on Friday that his party would “provide full backing to any responsible deal.” The same commitment has also been made by Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid.
Gantz reiterated his support for a hostage deal on Saturday evening as he joined a protest at the Shaar HaNegev Junction not far from the Gaza border.
“Returning our hostages even at a painful and difficult price is the right strategic decision and it is the Jewish thing to do,” Gantz said in a statement published on his WhatsApp channel. It was not the first time the lawmaker attended a protest, having demonstrated at the same location alongside fellow National Unity lawmaker MK Alon Schuster less than a week after resigning from the government last month.
Tel Aviv rally highlights mothers
As the sun began to set on Saturday evening, thousands gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square to mark the nine-month milestone since the October 7 Hamas onslaught by focusing on mothers — both those who are held captive and those who have spouses or children in captivity.
Danielle Aloni, who was released from Hamas captivity after 49 days with her 6-year-old daughter Emilia, was invited to speak at the event, as was Simona Steinbrecher, mother of Doron Steinbrecher whom Hamas terrorists abducted to Gaza on October 7.
Aloni used the opportunity to highlight the plight of the Bibas family — parents Shira and Yarden, and their two children, 4-year-old Ariel and 1-year-old Kfir, who are all still hostages in Gaza.
“There is one mother who can’t cry out the cry of their children who are rotting in Hamas captivity,” she told the crowd. “Shiri Bibas can’t cry out, she is forbidden to speak.
“I know what she’s going through — I had to lie to Emilia and invent a cover story for how we arrived in this hell,” she said. But in the case of the Bibas family, she continued, “Lying is no longer possible — Kfir and Ariel may not remember any other reality anymore.”
She ended her address with a call for Netanyahu and the cabinet to “not miss” the opportunity for a hostage deal
A video recorded by rescued hostage Almog Meir Jan, which touched on the rally’s theming, was also aired at the start of the protest.
Meir Jan, who was rescued by Israeli security forces from central Gaza last month, said that a deal to free the remaining captives was crucial for mothers to be able to hug their children again, “like I can hug my mother now.”
אלמוג מאיר ג'אן בסרטון שהוקרן בכיכר החטופים: "חשוב שנגיע לעסקה, כדי שכל האימהות יוכלו לחבק את הילדים שלהן כמו שאני מחבק את אמא שלי עכשיו"https://t.co/RwJTFTdQeN pic.twitter.com/IOZxO5R3P8
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) July 6, 2024
“Returning was like having a birthday, like being born again, and I really hope that all the hostages in Gaza will experience that same rebirth as I did,” he said in the recording.
“In Gaza, I thought that if I were to return alive — not if; when, I return alive — the meaning of my tattoo “alive’ would receive a completely different meaning to what I intended it to in the beginning,” he said, pointing to the tattoo on his forearm.
He expressed his condolences to the family of Arnon Zmora, who was killed in the operation to rescue him from captivity, and praised soldiers who had been wounded in the fighting.
Ella Chaimi, whose husband Tal Chaimi was killed while defending Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak and his body taken to Gaza, recalled her experience being pregnant with her fourth son, who was conceived shortly before October 7, without having her husband by her side.
“At every checkup, I assumed you’d already be here for the next one,” she said, addressing her late husband. “I’m not sure he’ll ever return [for burial].” Chaimi gave birth to the couple’s son in May.
On nearby Kaplan Street, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters similarly marked nine months of war, along with dozens of smaller protests across the country, from Amiad Junction in the Galilee to Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev. Larger rallies were also held in Jerusalem and Haifa, as well as in Caesarea, across from Netanyahu’s private residence.
Thousands attended the protest in Jerusalem, where Libi Goldberg-Polin, the younger sister of Hamas-held hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, spoke to the crowd on her birthday.
“Right now all I need more than any great leadership or great decision is my big brother,” she told the crowd.
A number of anti-government activists gave speeches focusing on the three-month Knesset recess slated for the end of July.
“This coalition is not concerned with elections or a deal,” said anti-government activist Moran Michelle from onstage. “This coalition is only concerned with itself, and thus voted this week to go on a three-month summer recess. We do not have the privilege to rest or despair.”
After the main rally ended, a group of around a hundred protesters attempted to block the junction, where officers confiscated protesters’ drums as they pushed people back onto the sidewalks. Police arrested protesters en route the Prime Minister’s Residence on Azza Street, where hundreds of people marched to call for an early election.
Kicking off the rally in Haifa, a group of protesters marched with signs commemorating October 7, and a banner demanding “elections now.”
“The government of Israel vs. the people of Israel,” it read.
In Rehovot, protesters held up similar signs demanding that the Knesset “return the mandate to the nation and go to elections.”
Police detain protesters blocking Ayalon Highway
Back in Tel Aviv, anti-government protesters who spilled onto the Ayalon Highway to block the traffic at the end of the organized demonstration were met with a police deployment ready to force them back from the road.
Police detained several people who were blocking the northbound lanes of the traffic artery, including Noy Erez, a spokeswoman of Yair Golan, chairman of the Democrats Party, which is a newly established merger of the Labor party under Golan and Meretz.
In a video from the protest, Erez can be seen lying on the road carrying a sign reading “Bring them back home and go home” as a police officer orders her to get up. Photos from the event showed Erez being carried away by police officers.
אני בסדר. מי שלא בסדר זה 120 החטופות וחטופים שנמקים בשבי החמאס. https://t.co/qLp3ZqRdtW
— Noy Erez????️ (@noyerezz) July 6, 2024
The crew of at least one police water cannon truck turned on the device, blasting protesters with water and pushing them back as others chanted slogans.
Another police officer attempted to direct traffic around the roadside disturbance, although a flare hurled by a protester brought all traffic to a halt.
המכתזית מתיזה בכינון ישיר גם את מי שנמצאים בצד הכביש לאחר שפינתה ממנו את המפגינים בכוח pic.twitter.com/ScAt5EUbYI
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) July 6, 2024
The scene was not unusual for the Kaplan Street and Ayalon Highway protests, where several weekly rallies have ended with a temporary shutdown of traffic and violent clashes between protesters and mounted police as well as police water cannon crews.
Sign of life
While the hostage rally considers itself to be a non-partisan alternative to the anti-government rally, Anat Angrest, the mother of captive soldier Staff Sgt. Matan Angrest, delivered an unusually fiery speech aimed at far-right cabinet ministers whom she branded “evil” and hungry for “revenge.”
The fact that there is a deal on the table at all is only thanks to the bravery of the IDF, Angrest declared, as “all that Hamas is asking for is that you stop [fighting] and then we can bring them all back.”
She revealed that she had received a sign that her son was kidnapped alive after troops found a video of him, filmed in Gaza after his capture.
“Wounded, he was facing the camera and addressing you, Mr. Prime Minister, saying: ‘Netanyahu, I don’t know how this happened but I’m counting on you to get me out of here,’” she said.
The video was hitherto unknown and has not been publicly screened, though Angrest told Channel 12 last week that the family had recently seen raw footage found by IDF soldiers operating in the Strip around November that showed her son.
Directing remarks to IDF soldiers, she said that while Netanyahu could agree to a deal for her son’s release, and perhaps even wanted to, “there are evil forces around him who know that your brother Matan is wounded and bleeding and his life is in danger, but they don’t want to rescue him. They want you to continue to fight, to be wounded, to die, to open additional fronts only to fulfill their desire for revenge.”
Although she did not name any cabinet ministers, her address appeared aimed at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, and their threats to topple the government should Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
“Until when will a vocal minority that places the sanctity of revenge over the sanctity of man be the voice deciding Matan’s fate?” Angrest asked.
The hostages were kidnapped on October 7 when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
