Families say lives of hostages ‘hang by a thread,’ as demos held after tunnel video shown
Hundreds urge deal, block Tel Aviv traffic; families say video of tunnel where 6 hostages were executed shows ‘cruelty’ of conditions, hold PM responsible; Danino pleads for unity
Hundreds of demonstrators protested in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, demanding the government reach a deal to free the hostages as the Israel Defense Forces revealed footage taken from a cramped, bloody tunnel where the bodies of six executed captives were found last week.
The forum representing the families of hostages warned that the tunnel evidence underlined that the lives of the remaining hostages were “hanging by a thread.”
Demonstrators intermittently blocked traffic outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv and called on drivers to join the “struggle for the soul of this country.”
Some drivers exited their cars to join the protesters, while others appeared somewhat irked by the disruptions.
“We won’t agree to a government of abandoners,” the protesters chanted.
The roadblocks lasted a few minutes, after which protesters let traffic through.
Related: IDF video shows ‘horrific conditions’ in tunnel where 6 hostages were held, executed
The demonstration also featured four protesters sitting on the floor with their hands bound, simulating the conditions of hostages in Gaza. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum staged similar exhibitions in intersections across the country earlier Tuesday.
This was the third day in the second straight week of daily protests on Begin Road. The protests began after the army announced last Sunday that it recovered six recently six slain hostages — Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alex Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, and Eden Yerushalmi — from a tunnel underneath Rafah.
About 150 protesters gathered outside the IDF headquarters. Previous daily protests have drawn closer to 2,000. In Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, dozens of demonstrators supporting an agreement gathered in Zion Square, chanting, “No routine until there’s a deal.”
As the protests took place, footage was published by the IDF of the tunnel in which the six hostages were executed. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that the video “leaves no doubt as to the cruelty of their last moments.”
In a statement published in English, the forum said the captives “suffered until their last breath.”
The video showed IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari giving a tour of the claustrophobic underground passageway in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood. The tunnel was seen littered with bottles of urine, women’s clothes, and large blood stains on the ground, where the hostages were murdered.
“They were confined in narrow 1.5 meters tall tunnels, deep underground, deprived of air, sanitary conditions and subjected to constant mental and physical abuse before their brutal execution,” the forum said.
“They begged to be released, pleaded for their lives. Fought for their lives until their death.”
It added that there are still 101 hostages in Gaza who are “enduring unimaginable suffering. Hungry, exhausted, tortured, they cling to a single hope: that we will continue fighting for their freedom.”
“They trust us to bring them home. Every day in captivity is an eternity. Every day that passes is a danger to their lives, hanging by a thread, at the mercy of terrorists capable of the worst crimes against humanity,” the forum warned, adding that time is running out for a deal that will bring about their release.
In a similar statement in Hebrew, the forum also slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that he and the government “hold joint responsibility for the fate and safety of our hostages.”
“Their silence and inaction are unparalleled in the country’s history,” it said of the government. “History will forever reckon with them.”
At Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, just down the road from protesters at Begin Street, hostage families held a public singing event, featuring Elhanan Danino, father of executed hostage Ori Danino.
In his address to the event, Danino talked about a widely publicized leaked conversation in which he harshly criticized Netanyahu for his failure to bring the hostages home, and accused the premier of building up Hamas to the point where it murdered his son.
“I came here today after a crazed day,” Danino said. “Parts of the media turned my words to hurt someone, heaven forbid. That was not my intent.”
In his speech, Danino doesn’t mention Netanyahu by name.
“I came here today to be the voice of 101 hostages and families,” Danino said. “I no longer have the privilege to stand idly by, but I also, unfortunately, no longer have what to gain.”
He explained that he had refrained from public appearances till now because his son, a soldier with the Paratrooper’s 202nd Battalion, was kidnapped while on active duty.
Danino spoke about the cultural divide straddled by his son, who joined the army after studying in an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem.
“The wavelength I tried to broadcast to those who spoke with me during the condolences, including the — unfortunately — well-known conversation, is that whoever saw Ori’s funeral and the shiva understood a bit about us and what we teach and strive for,” said Danino, noting that he himself had served in the army, and his wife did national service, but neither of them left the ultra-Orthodox fold.
Appealing for unity, Danino said that the fringes of society must not be allowed to divide the “mostly connected, loving, and united” public.
“All of Israel are brothers. We may wear different clothes, but we all came from the same father and the same mother,” he says. “Let us not allow anyone to divide us.”
Still refraining from referring to Netanyahu by name, Danino appealed to the country’s leaders.
“You sit there each day and manage many things, but saving lives comes above all else,” he said. “The lives of dozens of our best sons and daughters depend on you. Please don’t miss any slim chance there is to bring everyone home immediately.”
The self-declared apolitical “Singing for their return” event, held every Tuesday, has drawn a 300-strong crowd, which is notably younger, more religious, and more staid than the anti-government, pro-hostage deal protest — also organized by the Hostages Families Forum — two blocks away on Begin Street.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
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.
