{"id":275891,"date":"2023-11-19T09:02:50","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T09:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=275891"},"modified":"2023-11-20T08:48:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T08:48:29","slug":"thousands-march-to-press-israels-government-to-do-more-to-free-hostages-held-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=275891","title":{"rendered":"Thousands march to press Israel’s government to do more to free hostages held in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

France 24 \u2013 Nov 18, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n

As public pressure mounted, Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel<\/a>‘s War Cabinet would meet with representatives of the families this week. \u201cI am marching with you. The Israeli people are marching with you,\u201d he said. \u201cI promise, when we have something to say, we will inform you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The march capped a five-day trek from Tel Aviv and represented the largest protest<\/a> on behalf of the hostages<\/a> since they were dragged into Gaza by Hamas on Oct. 7 as part of the militants’ deadly attack in southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel on the day of the surprise Hamas<\/a> assault.<\/p>\n

Israel declared war in response, and more than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in the past six weeks as the Israeli military conducts a punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza, where Hamas militants have ruled for the past 16 years.<\/p>\n

Israeli leaders have set dual objectives \u2014 to crush Hamas and to bring the hostages home. But they have not made clear to families how they plan to balance the two.<\/p>\n

Some of the hostage families have said they fear that the military offensive endangers their loved ones. Israeli leaders, in turn, have argued that only military pressure on Hamas will lead to some hostage releases in a possible deal involving a temporary cease-fire.<\/p>\n

The families have not rallied around a single proposal for getting their loved ones back, but pleaded for more empathy and responsiveness from the government. Some criticized Israel’s War Cabinet for what they described as a lack of transparency about any rescue plans.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the marchers carried Israeli flags and photos of the hostages as they finished the 70-kilometer (45-mile) walk to Jerusalem and slowly converged on Netanyahu\u2019s office. Once there, they were joined by crowds carrying yellow balloons printed with the words \u201cBring them home.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I want you to look in my eyes and try to understand just a bit of the trauma I\u2019m feeling,\u201d Daria Gonen, referring to Israeli leaders, said at the rally. Her 23-year-old sister, Romi Gonen, was kidnapped by Hamas from a music festival-turned-massacre near Gaza.<\/p>\n

Ruby Chen, another protester, said that the families want to \u201ckeep the awareness of the hostage issue as a top priority for the government of Israel.\u201d Chen’s 19-year old son is a hostage.<\/p>\n

For the families, the procession marked the culmination of six weeks of worrying and wondering about the safety and whereabouts of their relatives, who include children and older adults.<\/p>\n

At a plaza in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, protesters released hundreds of pink balloons into the air and set out trays of cake and cookies, celebrating the birthdays of two hostages held by Hamas, 9-year old Emily Hand and 57-year old Raz Ben Ami.<\/p>\n

The march came as Israeli media reported that the War Cabinet was considering a Qatari-brokered deal to win the release of the women and children among the hostages. In exchange, Israel would agree to a cease-fire of several days and release several dozen of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners it is holding. Netanyahu denied Saturday that a deal had been struck.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the issue of hostages, there are a lot of unsubstantiated rumors, a lot of incorrect reports. I want to clarify, until his moment, there has not been a deal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Of the more than 240 hostages kidnapped to Gaza, five have been released \u2014 four of them through international diplomacy involving Qatar, and one who was rescued by Israeli troops. Their freedom raised the hopes of other families.<\/p>\n

But Israel this week confirmed the deaths of two hostages, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad have published several videos of hostages who looked unwell, provoking fear and concern among many.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sad fact is that the hostages are probably worth more to the Israeli government dead than alive. Just as the alleged \u2018six million\u2019 Holocaust victims is used today to manipulate Jews and extract political leverage, so the Zionists can use the hostages fate to their advantage <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":275893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275891"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275894,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275891\/revisions\/275894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/275893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}