Former hostage Emily Hand on Wednesday implored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal to free the remaining in captives Gaza, saying “this can’t go on.”

Addressing a rally in Kibbutz Hatzerim, where members of her hometown of Kibbutz Be’eri are living until the community is rebuilt, Hand described being taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists with Hila Rotem Shoshani and Raya Rotem on October 7, 2023.

Hand, 11, was 8-years-old when she was kidnapped.

“The pictures of the people around us aren’t just pictures,” she said. “These are people who were kidnapped to Gaza, and some were murdered. Just think for a moment about the word ‘kidnapped.’ Who would have believed that we would have to say that people from our own country were kidnapped?”

She then addressed Netanyahu directly.

“Bibi, I’m speaking to you directly — go make a deal now, because this can’t go on,” Hand said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “And I want to tell you: the conditions there are harsh. We must bring everyone back!”

She added: “Opening the fridge is a privilege. Going to sleep in a bed is a privilege. On that black Saturday, I had plans to meet friends, to dance in the studio with my sister, to cook food. But no. That didn’t happen, because instead, I got a one-way ticket to Gaza.”

Hand lost her mother to cancer when she was just 2 years old. When she returned home from captivity, her Irish-born father, Thomas Hand, had to tell her that her “second mother,” Narkis Hand — Thomas Hand’s former wife, and mother to Emily’s two half-siblings — was killed on October 7.

“It doesn’t make sense that we’re going to Hostage Square, visiting cemeteries, sometimes flying abroad — all because of what happened. Our hearts have been held captive there for far too long,” says Hand, who was freed in the weeklong ceasefire and hostage release deal in November 2023.

Shaked Haran, daughter of Avshalom Haran, who was murdered on October 7, and whose seven family members — including her mother, her sister, brother-in-law, their two children and two cousins — were taken hostage and later released in the two consecutive deals, also spoke and called the last 593 days “our struggle.”

“It’s hard, exhausting, and Sisyphean — but it’s ours,” said Haran.

“It’s not fair that after everything we’ve been through as a community, we still have to fight. But that’s the reality. And there’s tremendous power in shifting the spotlight from what was done to us, from what was taken from us — to what we can do for our brothers and sisters in distress.”

She said that everyone has a role in the struggle for the hostages, and it won’t happen without a struggle.

“I’m reminding us here, too — we have each other,” said Haran. “We must continue to be there for one another, for the families of the hostages. Unlike any natural process, here time does not ‘heal all wounds.’ The reality for the families of the hostages is only getting harder with each passing day, and we must stand strong with them and by their side.”

Additionally, Kibbutz Be’eri members Natali Ben Gal and Inbal Bechar, who survived the massacre, spoke at the Kibbutz Hatzerim event.

Hamas terrorists killed 101 people at Be’eri, 90 of them kibbutz members, during the October 7 massacre. Be’eri at the time had a population of some 1,000 people, 550 of them kibbutz members.

In total, Hamas-led terrorists killed around 1,200 mainly civilians on October 7 and took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in captivity along with the body of a soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.