Thousands attend hostage deal rally outside UN headquarters in New York
Demonstrators urge world leaders gathering for General Assembly to pay attention to plight of the captives in Gaza, note issue ‘remains conspicuously absent from the agenda’
Thousands of people on Friday attended a rally in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York to call for a hostage release-ceasefire deal in Gaza.
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 captives held in Gaza by Hamas 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,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, 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, said 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 said. “I wanted to scream for them while I wasn’t allowed to feel, cry, move, or even talk.”
She said 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, addressed 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, warned 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, asked 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 said.
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 said.
During the rally, an interfaith prayer for the safe return of the hostages was held by New York priests and rabbis.
In Jerusalem on Thursday night, hardline activists calling for relentless pressure on Hamas to secure the release of all the hostages held a protest near the Knesset. The rally was organized by the Tikva Forum, which represents a minority of the families of hostages.
Demonstrators carried placards declaring, “Only pressure on Hamas will return the hostages” and “Without all of them, no deal.”
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.
