A group of hostage families held an open Q&A panel in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Tuesday night to mark 200 days of captivity for their loved ones held by Hamas in Gaza.
Organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the Q&A panel took on a much more intimate character than the average rally held at Hostages Square.
Eldor added that although he aligns ideologically with the anti-government protesters, he believes uniting under one banner is critical to the hostage families’ movement.
“Unconditional love — if the hostages are still not here after 200 days, where is this unconditional love?
After a few minutes, the relatives of the hostages began to scream, crying out for help and shouting the names of their loved ones.
A group of hostage families held an open Q&A panel in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Tuesday night to mark 200 days of captivity for their loved ones held by Hamas in Gaza.
Following the public panel, a performance was held by a large group of hostage families dressed as Hamas-held captives whp marched single-file from the stage across the street to the Kirya military base, which they sat in front of while publicly crying for help and urging the return of their relatives.
Organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the Q&A panel took on a much more intimate character than the average rally held at Hostages Square. Organizers invited members of the audience to write down questions they had for the six panelists — relatives of the hostages, bereaved parents, internally displaced Israelis and a survivor of the Supernova rave massacre.
The event lasted a little over an hour and speakers answered only a few questions, but many audience members were active participants.
Rather than giving pre-planned speeches from a tall stage, the panelists sat in front of the audience and discussed their feelings of guilt, whether they remain optimistic for the future, their prospects of staying in Israel long-term and other more personal topics.
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Around half an hour into the event, a separate group of protesters slowly passed by the panel in Hostages Square, with their chants against the government audible from the nearby street.
The echo of their slogans prompted some of the speakers to urge audience members to stick with them and the families forum, for the sake of a united front for the hostages’ plight.
Yamit Ashkenazi, an evacuee from Kfar Azza and the sister of Hamas-held hostage Doron Steinbrecher, said that Hostages Square has “been empty, or at least less full than it has been,” over the past few weeks.
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“When I go from the place that the bus drops me off to the direction of Hostages Square, I see thousands of people passing by with Israeli flags and shirts of the Hostages Families Forum, but they’re going in the other direction,” she said, alluding to anti-government protests in Tel Aviv led by a smaller group of hostage families. “If you’ve already left your house, why not come and strengthen us, why not come to Hostages Square?”
Liron Eldor, the father of slain soldier Adi Eldor who fought in Kfar Azza on October 7 and was killed in Khan Younis last February, expressed a similar sentiment to Ashkenazi, then began to rail against an indifference to the hostages that he feels is too prevalent in Israeli society.
“This is the focus at the moment — to bring people out from their indifference and onto the streets,” he said. Eldor added that although he aligns ideologically with the anti-government protesters, he believes uniting under one banner is critical to the hostage families’ movement.
“Replacing the government, that will come together with the hostages, but everyone needs to unite on one stage. I don’t think it is working right now with disunited forces,” he said.
He compared the mass protests staged after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempted removal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last year, bemoaning the lack of mobilization for the hostages as compared to the swaths of people who turned out to protest then.
Eldor also derided commonly echoed slogans that have become popular during the ongoing war.
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“Together we will win? Where is the ‘together?’” he asked, looking around. “Unconditional love — if the hostages are still not here after 200 days, where is this unconditional love? There is no ‘together we will win,’ no ‘unconditional love.’”
After the Q&A panel ended, a large group of hostage family members splattered in red paint resembling blood, some with rope tied around their hands, walked silently in a single-file line off the stage and across the street to sit outside the Kirya military headquarters.
After a few minutes, the relatives of the hostages began to scream, crying out for help and shouting the names of their loved ones. The audience responded in turn with cries of “bring them home!” and “deal now!”
Some of the protesters held signs of their missing relatives, and used the sign poles to rhythmically bang on the ground while more people gathered to see the display.
A strip of tape with the number 200 written on it covered the mouth of each family member. Before they dispersed for the night, the relatives and supporting audience together began to chant to 200, the number of days since the October 7 attack in which they were taken hostage.
