Israel on Friday marked 700 days since the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, invasion, massacre, and hostage-taking in southern Israel, with demonstrations across the country demanding a deal to secure the remaining captives’ release.
Forty-seven of the people abducted from Israel in the attack remain in captivity, of whom between 20 and 22 are believed to be alive. Hamas is also holding the body of a soldier killed in 2014.
Freed hostages and the families of those still in captivity led protests on Friday morning, demanding the government return to the negotiating table with Hamas, which has accepted a proposed deal, and not move forward with an expansion of the war, which would likely put the captives at even greater risk.
“Government of Israel — drop the excuses! A deal is necessary now, before it’s too late,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in a statement Thursday ahead of the protests.
“A framework for the return of the hostages and an end to the war is on the table, but Netanyahu continues to torpedo it for political considerations, against the will of more than 80% of the nation, and against the advice of the security establishment,” the forum charged.
Hamas last month said it agreed to a framework similar to one that Jerusalem had previously accepted and pushed for, which would have seen the return of 10 living captives and the bodies of 18 slain hostages, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners and some 1,000 Gazan detainees, amid negotiations for the return of the remaining hostages and a permanent end to the war.
Israel has said in recent weeks, however, it will only negotiate for the return of all the hostages and an end to the war on terms it finds acceptable, which include Hamas’s disarmament, Gaza’s demilitarization, and the institution of a new civil government in the Strip that includes neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank and is widely considered the Palestinians’ legitimate representative internationally.
Early Friday morning, in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, protesters laid out a yellow “SOS” sign on the ground, along with an hourglass, signaling that time is running out for the hostages. Protesters wore yellow shirts and head coverings as they stood throughout the exhibit.
Demonstrations were also held, among other places, in Haifa, Kfar Saba, and at various highway junctions across the country. In Ness Ziona, protesters demonstrated outside the home of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
In Jerusalem, protesters gathered in front of the President’s Residence, and another small protest was held outside the Knesset.
In Kiryat Gat, members of Kibbutz Nir Oz, who were temporarily relocated to the southern city after the massacre, spoke to the press, demanding a comprehensive deal to return the remaining captives.
Their kibbutz was largely destroyed in the October 7 assault, as Hamas-led terrorists entered all but six of the roughly 200 homes in the small community and either murdered or kidnapped one of every four residents — 117 people out of some 400.
Ilana Gritzewsky, who was released from captivity during the first hostage-truce deal in November 2023, and whose partner, Matan Zangauker, is still hostage, said: “645 days have passed since I returned, and my beloved is still not free. My breath is trapped there, with Matan, and with all the hostages.”
Iair Horn, who was released in a deal earlier this year and whose brother Eitan remains in Gaza, said: “I have a million stories of what it’s like in hell, in captivity.”
“I can tell you we ate nothing, that there was no air to breathe in the tunnels, that we barely drank any water, and that when we did, it was salty. But after 700 days, it seems to me that no one cares, that it’s okay for people to remain in captivity.
“In my life, I never imagined that we’d get to day 700, and I’d be standing here speaking about my brother Eitan, who is still hostage, and about my friends who are still held in captivity,” he said.
“There aren’t enough hands to hold all these signs, and so we need you. I don’t want to be like the brother of Ron Arad” — an airman who disappeared decades ago — “or like Tzur Goldin, the brother of Hadar [Goldin]” — a soldier killed in 2014 whose body is still held by Hamas in Gaza. “I want to be with my brother now.”
Arbel Yehoud, who was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz and held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, told the press: “In captivity, there are no special days, you survive one day at a time, every minute is an eternity and every second your life is at risk. There is enormous anxiety, abuse and terrible suffering. Every breath could be your last.”
Yehoud’s partner, Ariel Cunio, remains captive, along with his brother David.
Yehoud addressed her captive fiancé: “I’m fighting. Don’t be broken, my love. Keep holding onto hope, and don’t give up for a moment. We aren’t giving up, and we aren’t broken for a second, until you return to us. I love you, my beautiful.”
Sylvia Cunio, Ariel and David’s mother, added: “Our loves, you are the nation of Israel, for you we immigrated to Israel. For the togetherness. We don’t abandon Jews. We don’t abandon anyone.”
She accused the government of choosing not to return her sons: “They could have been here long ago, but due to wretched politics, my children are suffering. My granddaughters Emma and Yuli are growing up in a nightmare, because of wretched politics.”
“Arielito sheli, Papito sheli,” she said, using a mix of Hebrew and diminutives from her native Spanish. “I love you. Be strong. We are doing everything to bring you back.”
At 3 p.m., representatives of some of Gaza’s border communities, led by survivors of Hamas captivity and family members of those still held hostage, will lead a Friday evening prayer service in Hostages Square, ahead of the 101st Sabbath since the Saturday morning attack in 2023.
“The hostage families invite all of Israel to join, and stand beside us in one shared call: ‘We will not let us get to a 102nd Shabbat [without the hostages],” the Hostage Families Forum said in a statement.
“Every day is critical for the hostages. We do not have the privilege to wait another day,” it continued, calling on Jerusalem’s representatives to “change out the Shabbat dinner table with the negotiating table, and not get up until a time and manner is set for the return of the last hostage.”
The demonstrations came as Israel prepares for a major new offensive to take over Gaza City, in the northern Strip. The plan has drawn outcry from many hostage families, who fear that their loved ones could be killed, either as an accidental result of the fighting itself or intentionally by their Hamas captors, as has occurred in the past when Israeli forces drew close to locations where hostages were being held.
Top officials in the military and security establishment are also reported to oppose the plan, which the Israel Defense Forces estimate could take months to complete.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. 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. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a “gesture” to the United States. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued alive from captivity by troops, and the bodies of 51 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.