Families of Israeli captives furious over resumption of war on Gaza
The families of captives held by Hamas in Gaza have reacted with shock, anger and grief to the renewal of Israel’s bombing campaign, which has brought a conclusive end to a two-month ceasefire.
Romi Gonen, who was released as part of that ceasefire agreement, expressed grave concern for the safety of the remaining captives.
“My heart broke this morning,” Gonen wrote on her Instagram account. “I will never forget the moment I heard the booms in captivity when the deal was blown up and I realised that I would not be returning any time soon.”
Gonen went on to appeal to the Israeli public and the government: “I beg the people of Israel, we have to fight for them [the captives]. The government of Israel get them out. This is the most urgent thing. They are running out of time.”
The soldier Daniella Gilboa, who was released from captivity, also expressed her concern and exasperation. “Abandoning them again, ditching them again, war again,” Gilboa posted on social media.
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Yarden Bibas, a former captive, husband of Shiri Bibas and father to four-year-old Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir, all of whom died in Gaza, wrote on his Facebook page that the return to fighting brought him back to "to the moments where I heard the sounds of explosions around me and where I feared for my life as I was afraid that the tunnel where I was being held would collapse".
"My wife and children were kidnapped alive and were brutally murdered in captivity. The military pressure endangers the hostages while an agreement brings them home," Bibas wrote.
'The State of Israel is sacrificing its people. Mothers of soldiers need to know that their children can be abandoned or sacrificed in this battle'
- Lishi Lavi Miran, wife of captive Omri Miran
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main organisation of the captives’ families, is protesting the war’s resumption. “We are shocked, outraged and anxious by the deliberate shattering of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas,” the forum said in a statement, before calling for protest in Jerusalem.
“An emergency call – they are killing the hostages,” the forum said. “Following the decision to resume military operations, which places 59 hostages at grave risk, their families are now making their way to Jerusalem and calling on the people of Israel to stand with them. There is nothing more urgent than this!”
On Tuesday afternoon, Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker is being held captive by Hamas, led a group of protestors to the Gaza boundary to try to block Israel’s renewed assault. The group is calling on Israel to end its war.
“I'm going to Nir Oz to block the return to war with my body,” Zangauker said. “We must take to the streets and stop the war. Join me, the residents of the Gaza envelope, to the meeting points, to create a human wall, to save the hostages and the country from the war.”
Israel breaks ceasefire, killing hundreds
According to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, more than 400 Palestinians were killed during the Israeli attacks early on Tuesday, including more than 100 children.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said after the attacks that “if Hamas does not release all the hostages, the gates of hell in Gaza will open and it will meet the IDF [Israeli army] with intensity that has never been known before.”
Itamar Ben Gvir, the former minister of national security, whose party announced on Tuesday it would rejoin Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government after leaving it because of the ceasefire deal, welcomed the renewal of Israeli bombing.
'The moment has come to refuse... To refuse to die in Netanyahu's war. To refuse to choose war at the expense of the hostages in Gaza'
- Alon-Lee Green, Israeli human rights activist
“This is the most correct, moral, ethical and justifiable step in order to destroy the Hamas terror organisation and return our hostages,” Ben Gvir wrote on his X account.
Again, this contrasted sharply with the responses of the captives’ families. Yotam Cohen, the brother of the captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio: “Israel sentences the hostages to death, it is known that the military pressure caused the death of 41 hostages - what is different now?”
Earlier this month, a New York Times investigation found that 41 captives had been killed since being taken to Gaza. Some were killed by Hamas and some were killed by Israeli fire, according to the report.
Cohen said that the ceasefire deal “did not collapse - Israel sabotaged it. It could have returned [all of the captives] in exchange for agreed prices and chose not to do so.”
Lishi Lavi Miran, the wife of the captive Omri Miran, also accused the Israeli government of violating the ceasefire agreement. “The State of Israel is sacrificing its people. Mothers of soldiers need to know that their children can be abandoned or sacrificed in this battle,” she said.
“We have returned to the fighting and there is a chance that Omri is being executed at this moment,” she added.
Israeli political opposition
Opposition to the resumption of air strikes has not been confined to the captives’ families. Yair Golan, head of the centre-left Democrats party wrote that “madness must not be allowed to win”.
“The protest must erupt in anger in order to save hostages, soldiers and the State of Israel from the hands of this corrupt and dangerous man,” he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Alon-Lee Green, a human rights activist from the organisation Standing Together, addressed Israeli soldiers, saying: “The moment has come to refuse. To refuse to return to the war of choice and eternity of the extreme right. To refuse to die in Netanyahu's war. To refuse to choose war at the expense of the hostages in Gaza. To refuse to kill people for no reason.”
In a Knesset debate on Tuesday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich promised that “the continuation of the war will look completely different from what has been done so far. We will continue until victory.”
During the debate, Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, who died in Hamas captivity, blasted Smotrich and the government: “You are murdering hostages. There are deals on the table, and you choose to sacrifice more hostages and more soldiers.”
During the ceasefire, which began in January, 33 Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners were released and more humanitarian aid supplies entered Gaza than before, until Israel declared a complete siege on Gaza earlier this month.
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