Relatives of hostages taken by Hamas on its 7 October attack on southern Israel have begun a march from Tel Aviv to Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem.
At the start of the 40-mile route, families gathered outside the Tel Aviv Museum Square and fought back tears as they made impassioned pleas for the release of their loved ones held captive in Gaza for 39 days.
Yuval Haran, who has seven relatives who were taken hostage, told the crowd: “They don’t have time any more.”
Haran, 36, said he was consumed by pain as he added: “We will go to Jerusalem where the people who have the power to decide sit, where the prime minister and the war cabinet sit, where all of the Knesset is, and we will demand to meet with them. We will demand to hear why our families aren’t home yet.”
Hamas militants stormed southern Israeli towns and kibbutzim on 7 October, killing an estimated 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages.
Haran’s father, Avshalom, 66, and his aunt, Lilach Kipnis, and uncle, Eviatar Kipnis, were killed after Hamas stormed the Be’eri kibbutz.
His mother, Shoshan, 67, and sister, Adi Shoham, along with her husband, Tal, their son, Naveh, eight, and daughter Yahel, three, were abducted. His aunt and her 12-year-old daughter were also kidnapped.
The families aim to march between the two cities over five days, camping in tents along the way and arriving outside Netanyahu’s office on Saturday.
“For the past 39 days, we’ve been doing everything we can, and I decided I can’t sit around any more. I can’t just stay at home and sit and be on my phone and on my computer, I need to do something,” Haran told the Guardian.
“We don’t know if the hostages have food. We don’t know if they have water. We don’t know how they’re being taken care of. We don’t even know if they are alive.
“I want to shout and I want the entire world to hear the families of those being held hostage and I want people who have the power to make decisions to bring them home.”
Shelly Shem-Tov spoke of her fears for her son, Omer, 21, who was abducted from the Supernova music festival near the Gaza border. “I don’t know if he’s eating or if he sees the sun or if they are beating him,” she said.
She said her son has asthma and was without his inhaler, telling the crowd: “I don’t know if you know how it is to feel that you don’t have breath.”
She added: “I want to ask all the cabinet in our country … I demand that you will come and talk to us and we want answers.”
As the march left the plaza, informally renamed “Hostages Square”, the families chanted the Hebrew word achshav, meaning “now”.
Holding up posters of their loved ones, each had their own devastating story to tell. Erez Adar, 63, wore a T-shirt bearing the smiling face of his 85-year-old mother, Yafa, who was abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz. The T-shirt of his wife, Adriana, featured her nephew, Tamir, 38.
“He’s a father of two little boys, aged seven and four, and we want all of them back alive now. Tamir’s children are alone, waiting and praying. They don’t understand why their father is not with them,” Adriana said.
“We want the government to bring them home. I don’t know how but this is their job. There are people who are wounded and they don’t have time. There are a lot of old people, they don’t have a day more; they don’t have an hour.”
Reports have surfaced in recent days about negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Noam Alon, who said he had been living in a nightmare since his partner, Inbair Haiman, 27, was snatched from the music festival, appeared encouraged by the news.
“I want the government to do everything possible to bring them home. I will march to Jerusalem but I hope there’ll be a deal before then,” he said.
