After Israel on Tuesday carried out airstrikes targeting Hamas leadership in the Qatari capital city Doha, family members of hostages held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip expressed anger, fear and despair over the future of negotiations to bring their loved ones home and end the war.
The strike targeted top Hamas leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, the terror group’s exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator. It took place while the leadership of Hamas was discussing the new US ceasefire proposal that Israel said it agreed to Tuesday, according to the Palestinian terrorist organization.
An Israeli official said that Israel was increasingly optimistic that they were killed, though Hamas sources claimed the top officials survived the attack.
In the wake of the attacks, initial reports said that Qatar informed Israel and the US that it would no longer serve as a mediator for Jerusalem, thereby suspending the talks entirely. Hours later, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that his country will remain in the role, despite the “treacherous” attack.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents most of the captives’ families, said it was “following the developments in Doha with deep concern and grave apprehension.”
“Grave fear now hovers over the price that the hostages may pay. We know from the survivors of captivity who have returned that the revenge directed against the hostages [after Israeli attacks] is cruel,” the forum said.
“The chance of their return now faces greater uncertainty than ever, with one thing that is absolutely certain — their time is running out,” it added.
The forum emphasized that “the true victory image will only be when they are all home.”
“We demand that the Israeli government present us with a structured plan for a comprehensive agreement for the return of the 48 hostages,” it concluded.
Einav Zanngauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker and prominent activist, slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ordering the strike on Doha, saying: “It could be that Netanyahu has sealed my son’s fate and blown up the deal. I am trembling with fear.
“It could be that in these very moments the prime minister has actually assassinated my Matan, sealed his fate,” she said. “Whoever decides to intentionally endanger my Matan’s life is murdering him.”
“Why does he insist on blowing up any chance of a deal?” she asked. “It’s about my child’s life.”
“Matan’s life hangs in the balance,” Zangauker added. “Again and again and again the prime minister sabotages the deal. I’m fed up! End this war already and bring everyone back in a comprehensive agreement.”
After the families expressed anguish at the strikes in Qatar, the government’s point man on hostages, Gal Hirsch, reportedly told them that Israel is working to protect their loved ones, asserting that leaders of the terror group living outside Gaza posed a “significant obstacle” in hostage negotiations.
According to Hebrew media reports, Hirsch sent a message to the families emphasizing that “we are monitoring the condition and location [of the hostages], especially in light of the developments of the past hours.”
Hirsch was quoted as saying that “consistently and over time, the Hamas leadership known as ‘Hamas abroad’ has been an obstacle to reaching an agreement.”
He was said to have told the families that Israel accepted US President Donald Trump’s latest proposal for a comprehensive hostage release and ceasefire deal with Hamas, and will continue pressing to advance the deal.
“We are steadfast in our mission — to bring back all the hostages. They are before our eyes 24 hours a day,” Hirsch reportedly wrote, adding that he was in Washington and available to the families at all times.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Among the bodies held by Hamas is an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.