Families of Israeli hostages and thousands of citizens arrived in Jerusalem at the end of a five-day march to pressure the government to do more to free those held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Holding a photo of his kidnapped girlfriend Inbar, 25-year-old Noam Alon said about 30,000 protesters marched along the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway demanding “everything possible be done to bring back the hostages.” “We’re waiting for them to meet with us and tell us how they plan to do this,” he said. “We can’t wait any longer, so we demand that they do it now, pay any price to bring the hostages back.”
Approximately 240 people, from babies to the elderly, including foreign citizens, are believed to be in the Gaza Strip, taken hostage by the Islamist group during the raid on villages and military bases in southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed. was killed. Many relatives and friends of the missing fear that they will be injured or killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza; The government says the attack increases its chances of getting them back, perhaps through a mediated prisoner exchange. Among those marching on Jerusalem was centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, who is mostly pro-war but wants Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign. Miki Zohar, a member of Netanyahu’s cabinet and party, was challenged Friday while visiting protesters at a rest area.
Hamas, which threatened to execute the hostages in retaliation for Israeli air strikes in the first days of the war, later announced that some of the hostages were killed in the bombing of Tel Aviv. That has raised concern among activists and relatives who have called on the Israeli government to expedite any prisoner swaps and frustration with Netanyahu’s insistence on the need for discretion in negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt.
Minister Gadi Eisenkot, who is in the Israeli war cabinet, told a delegation of the hostages’ families that “the return of the hostages to Israel is the top priority and also comes before the destruction of Hamas.” “Hamas takes time to collapse, and the hostages have no time to waste.” Eisenkot added that the Israeli leadership is dealing with this issue “day and night.”
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
