The Israeli hostage situation in the hands of Hamas, one year later

We spoke with the association that brings together the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, which has been leading the protests against Netanyahu for months.

• On October 7, 2023, Hamas took 251 people hostage in Israel.Today 101 remain in Gaza, of which probably 64 are alive.
• Protests by families of hostages in Israel against the Netanyahu government have intensified in recent months.
• Pressure for a ceasefire to release the hostages is growing in the country.

On 7 October 2023, thousands of militiamen of the Palestinian organization Hamas they entered Israeli soil and attacked a music festival and several villages, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking them hostage 251.

After decades of employment of the Palestinian territories, of suppression of basic rights and freedoms, after decades of violations of international law, Israel found horror and violence on its territory like never before.“Hate only breeds hate,” he said the journalist and writer Tiziano Terzani.From Israel's violence against the Palestinian people was born Hamas' violence against Israel, which in turn responded with a new dose of unprecedented violence.In the space of a year, the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed approximately 42 thousand people, 80 percent of homes destroyed or damaged, reduced to starvation 90 percent of the population e also causing the return of diseases that have been painstakingly eradicated, such as polio.

Israeli fire also killed several of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, while others were killed by the Palestinian organization itself.Someone else was freed or managed to escape and they should be around today a hundred the Israeli hostages still in the Gaza Strip:men, women, children.In Israel people take to the streets every week to ask for their release, but the demonstrations organized and led by the associations of the hostages' families have increasingly become a moment of profound criticism of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.“Israel's leaders should accept any deal on the table that leads to the release of the hostages,” explains a LifeGate The Forum of hostages' families.

How many Israeli hostages are there?

Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023, 117 were released during the year.This happened almost exclusively at the end of November 2023, thanks to an agreement between the Israeli government and Hamas which he brought about ten days ago cease-fire. 

Others 70 hostages they were killed, second Israeli sources.Half of the bodies are still in the Gaza Strip, the others were brought home by the army.Some of the hostages would have died already on the day of the Hamas assault on October 7, others during the imprisonment in the Gaza Strip.According to Palestinian sources, most died under them Israeli bombs, who in one year have destroyed or damaged the80 percent of homes in Palestinian territory, striking indiscriminately schools, hospitals, refugee camps, institutional headquarters and humanitarian facilities and doing about 42 thousand dead. Three hostages are then were killed in cold blood on the street by Israeli soldiers, who had mistaken them for Palestinians.Proof of total absence of thought with which the army of Israel is operating.

Today they officially remain in the Gaza Strip 101 hostages, but Israeli sources they believe that they are 64 those still alive:52 men, ten women and two children.

The protests against Netanyahu

Everything is fine Saturday the families of the Israeli hostages gather in the square Tel Aviv. They have been doing this for a year now and will do so until the last of the hostages has returned home.If in the first months the finger was pointed at the Palestinian organization Hamas, now the protests also and above all concern the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and his government, the most extremist in the country's history.

“Although Hamas is primarily responsible, we also expect our government to do everything it can to bring our loved ones home.Israel's leaders should accept any viable deal on the table,” explains a LifeGate The Forum of hostages' families, an organization founded on 7 October 2023 by relatives of people kidnapped by Hamas to ask for their release.The family members they accuse Netanyahu that he is not interested in negotiating to bring the hostages home and that his only interest is to continue to the point of exhaustion a military offensive without clear objectives, if not an unrealistic “total defeat of Hamas”.As the months passed, the participation of Israeli civil society in the protests organized by the Forum of the hostages' families increased, leading to the large national demonstration half a million people of September 1st, occurred in the same hours in which the death of others was announced six hostages.

“The vast majority of Israeli civil society supports the hostages and their families.People participate in events and gatherings throughout the country and abroad to show solidarity", continues the Forum of the families of the hostages.“As we celebrate one year since October 7, we urge the world not to forget the humanitarian crisis of hostages from 24 countries and five religions, forced to endure horrific conditions including hunger, darkness and physical and sexual abuse.”United Nations analysis they established that there is “clear and convincing information” of incidents of sexual abuse committed by Hamas militants against Israeli hostages, but also that i Palestinian prisoners they would have suffered in Israeli prisons sexual violence by the Israeli security forces.Several other reports have underlined that the Israeli army has committed invasions in the Gaza Strip in recent months war crimes, including humiliation and abuse of various types, against Palestinian civilians, included health workers and children, which is why the UN he included Israel in “list of shame”.

“We want a hostage deal”

The protests by the families of the Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas are aimed against the Netanyahu government, but in a different way from those they brought to the streets millions of people all over the world.If in the latter case the slogan is lo “stop the genocide in Gaza” and a pacifist ceasefire, in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities those who take to the streets do so to ask for release of the hostages and a functional ceasefire in this sense.

“As a nation, we cannot move forward until all hostages have returned home:the living to start their complex rehabilitation process and the murdered for one worthy burial”, underlines a LifeGate the Forum of the families of the hostages.“As Israeli citizens, our demands are directed at our leaders and the government.We expect them to do everything in their power to ensure the release of the hostages and negotiate a settlement.A hostage agreement is the only way to achieve a cease-fire, put an end to suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians and bring stability to the region."

THE'opposition increasingly involved in Netanyahu in Israel and his management of the military offensive on Gaza is, however, creating rifts in civil society and even among the hostages' families.The New York Times he said the story of the relatives of three hostages who oppose any agreement between the Israeli government and Hamas.Even among Israeli citizens there are those who are starting to not take kindly to the protests of the Forum of the families of the hostages, after in the first months the protests gathered everyone together, voters and detractors of the government.However, the families of the hostages have no intention of stopping with the protests, on the contrary.“Every day that passes without an agreement brings more suffering for the hostages and their families,” concludes the Hostages' Family Forum."The time factor it is essential."