Speaking at a rally in Sha’ar HaNegev calling for the return of the hostages on Saturday evening, former hostage Emily Damari compared the ongoing pain of the remaining hostages’ captivity to that of the shrapnel embedded in her body for more than a year.
“The pain of the hostages is also a shard in the heart of our nation. I cannot stand here and stay silent about my Gali and my Ziv, my beloved friends who are still held captive by Hamas and going through hell,” she said, referring to 27-year-old twins Gali and Ziv Berman, Damari’s neighbors in Kfar Aza. “The war for the hostages is a war for our soul as a people. I came back because you didn’t give up on me—now we will not give up on any of them.”
Damari said that she managed to survive captivity because she felt the presence of God and of those fighting to bring the hostages home. “Imagine threads of energy and love stretching from here to Gaza. Each of you was a small thread, and together you were a rope that pulled me out of the pit again and again,” she said.
Demonstrations and rallies for the release of the hostages took place on Saturday at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Kiryat Gat, Sha’ar HaNegev, and additional locations across the country, marking 610 days in which 55 hostages have been held by Hamas in Gaza. The rallies were held in the shadow of grim news about the deaths of four soldiers in Gaza, as well as news of the recovery of the bodies of hostages Gadi Haggai, Judih Weinstein Haggai, and Nattapong Pinta.
Speaking in Hostage Square, Ofir Angrest, the teenage brother of 22-year-old hostage Matan Angrest, sharply criticized the government’s handling of the hostage crisis, noting that not a single male soldier without foreign citizenship has yet returned alive.
“I look into my mother’s worried eyes and say: I’m sorry I failed. Again in this phase, we didn’t manage to bring Matan back. And why? Because he’s a soldier,” Ofir said. “As someone who is about to enlist and wants to follow in Matan’s footsteps into meaningful combat service and contribute, I now know there’s a massive gap between the military value and the political value. And worst of all—the government isn’t fighting for the soldiers the way the soldiers fight for it.”
Angrest said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the family in a meeting that he hadn’t known the extent of Matan’s condition, and that if he had known, Matan would have been released. He then read out disturbing details the family learned about Matan’s medical state: “Breathing attacks and asthma after being tortured in harsh interrogations, black eyes and facial fractures, repeated loss of consciousness where he was brought back just before suffocating to death.”
Not far from Hostages Square, another protest was held outside the Ministry of Defense and military headquarters in Tel Aviv. There, Shay Mozes, nephew of the freed hostage Gadi Mozes, noted the heavy price paid by soldiers in the ongoing war.
“Twenty heroic soldiers have died since Netanyahu blew up the deal that would have brought all the hostages home and ended the war,” Mozes said. “We are not interested in risking soldiers in rescue operations that return hostages in dribs and drabs. We demand to end the war with an agreement that brings everyone home. Our hearts are torn knowing that if not for Netanyahu’s political considerations, all the hostages would be home and the war would be over. And while soldiers are falling, Netanyahu insists on a partial deal and prolonging the war.”
Itzik Horn, whose sons Eitan and Iair were taken hostage more than 600 days ago, also spoke. Iair was returned in February 2025, but Eitan is still held in Gaza.
“My son is being held in a tunnel, and we pray he is still alive and surviving the bombings and the military pressure,” Itzik said. “He suffers from severe infections and isn’t receiving medication. We hear in the media that the deal negotiations are stuck.”
He addressed Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff: “We know you are pursuing a partial deal in hopes that it will spark further negotiations. But it seems we’ve hit a dead end. This is the time to recalculate the route, before the situation spirals out of control. Drop Netanyahu’s plans to prolong the war. Present Netanyahu and Hamas with a proposal and an ultimatum to end the war,” he said.
