Leading up to next week’s celebration of Passover, during which Jews in Israel and around the world commemorate the Jewish people’s liberation from bondage in Egypt, hostage families and supporters held dozens of protests and rallies across Israel last night to call attention to the 59 hostages held in Gaza who are not yet free.
“We will celebrate Passover while 59 of our fellow brothers and sisters remain held by Hamas, denied their basic freedom. We invite the public of all backgrounds to attend and call for a deal that will immediately release everyone—the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial,” the Hostage Families Forum wrote.
Speaking at the protest in Tel Aviv, former hostage Liri Albag, who was freed in January after nearly 500 days in Hamas captivity, said she felt compelled to be the voice for the hostages still in Gaza.
“While we are here, they are enduring a year and a half of torture and physical, mental, psychological—even sexual—abuse,” she said. “They threatened to cut off our hands if they found out we lied or did anything forbidden.”
“I call on decision-makers to bring everyone back—now,” Albag continued.
Omer Wenkeret, who was released from captivity several weeks after Albag, also spoke. “I stand here, emotional and shouting—bring my brothers home. But I’m not really here; only half of me is standing before you. Part of me is still imprisoned in a tunnel. And you're not really here either—because a part of all of us is captive in Gaza,” he said.
Wenkeret said that “true healing” would arrive for him only when hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evitar David are brought home.
He addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly: “Prime Minister, it is on you to bring them back. Only you. These are my brothers—our brothers—and it’s your responsibility alone to ensure they are home. We stand here tonight, under the skies of this country, as a voice for the voiceless. A voice for my brothers who are still starving, beaten, humiliated, and suffering. The word ‘freedom’ sounds lofty, but it’s also simple: to be with family,” he said.
The protests took place during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary. Israelis living there projected images of the hostages on a building near the Carl Lutz Memorial in Budapest, with the caption: “Bibi, are you having fun? 59 hostages, 547 days in hell.”
On Thursday, a protest march took place in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu and his government. Protesters walked from the Hungarian Embassy to the “Qatar Embassy in Israel”—a nickname they’ve given to the Likud headquarters in the wake of controversy regarding payments from Qatar to top Netanyahu advisers. There, the protesters held a pre-Passover toast.
At Saturday’s protest, former hostage Gadi Mozes called for an immediate end to the war and the return of the hostages. “The drums of war echo in my ears again. I was there—I heard those sounds from the other side of the border,” he recounted. “It’s horrific, it chokes the throat and paralyzes the soul. Our captive brothers are losing all hope as the sound of shells whistles from all sides. These shells killed and may still kill our helpless brothers. The assumption that killing people will make Hamas release the hostages is fundamentally flawed. Human life and property mean nothing to them. They have a bargaining chip, and they want to extract the most from it.”
Time is running out for the hostages, Mozes emphasized. “There are sick, wounded, desperate, and mentally scarred hostages. As a people, we are morally and ethically obligated to them. They are our brothers—citizens kidnapped and murdered in a democratic state, or soldiers who set out to defend it. We cannot abandon them in their time of need,” he said. “We must not rank them by arbitrary criteria. We must release them all—now! As I stand before you at this rally, I recall the few times I was shown photos of the protests you took part in. You filled me with strength and energy.”
He concluded with a call for the Israeli government to stop the war, withdraw from Gaza, and carry out the second phase of the ceasefire.
“We are out of time. The ground is burning beneath our feet. There is a great danger that more hostages will die, and some of our deceased hostages may be lost forever,” he said.
