Relatives of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas set out on foot from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. With the five-day march, they are calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government to do more to help the hostages.
In Israel, relatives of the hostages kidnapped by the Islamist terrorist militia Hamas set out on a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to demand greater commitment from the government for their release.
More than a hundred people initially took part in the 63-kilometer walk to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. Black T-shirts and posters featured photos of some of the hostages.
The protest action was called by the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons, which was founded after the major Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th in order to keep public awareness of around 240 people who were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. Several banners read “A deal for the hostages, now.”
Relative speaks of “psychological terror”
Netanyahu spoke on Sunday on the US broadcaster NBC about a possible agreement to release hostages. On Monday, Hamas’s armed wing accused Israel of postponing talks brokered by Qatar on a possible exchange of hostages for people detained in Israel.
In a statement, the forum called on the Israeli government to reveal what demands it made during the talks. The brother of one hostage, Danni Elgarat, accused the government of “psychological terror” against the families because of its silence. At the same time, Elgarat rejected an agreement to release only some of the hostages.
Meeting at the Red Cross in Geneva
Meanwhile, in Geneva, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, met with other families of the hostages. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Health Minister Menachem Buso also took part in the talks.
At a subsequent press conference, Cohen said that no Red Cross representative had been able to speak to any of the hostages. “To date, no one has met the hostages,” Cohen said. “We have no signs of life.”