'Blood is on your hands': Hostage families protest loved ones spending a year in captivity

Hostage families and protesters blocked the Begin-Kaplan intersection Sunday morning, calling to bring the hostages home, just ahead of the year mark of their captivity and the Hamas October 7 attack. 

Speaking at the protest, Gal Goren, whose father Avner was killed in the Hamas massacre and whose mother Maya Goren's body was recovered from Gaza, spoke at the protest, addressing Members of Knesset who he said had been supposed to attend a later canceled Knesset discussion on victory. 

"Are you sane? Talking about victory?" he asked. "When the last time Emma and Yuli saw David was in captivity? When Shahar Mazal has not yet met her dad Sagui? When Yale hasn't buried Tamir the hero?"

"We have been without strategy and direction for a year. Soldiers are falling for nothing. The evacuees can't go back to their homes in the North or South."

"The hostages are being murdered, and the blood is on your hands. And you dare to yap about victory?" 

Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin Ofer Kalderon is still being held in Hamas captivity, also spoke at the protest.

"It is incomprehensible that we need to stand here and talk about how important it is to bring them back. It is incomprehensible that we need to explain again and again why they won't last there much longer," she said.

A year waiting for their return

The ongoing war is normalizing the situation of the hostages and the loss of importance of the value of human life, Kalderon added. 

"Tomorrow will be October 7. Again. The stain on the legacy of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has only grown and set in. He will be forever remembered as a leader who was not able to bring back hostages." 

Naama Weinberg, whose cousin Itay Svirsky was killed in Hamas captivity, also spoke at the rally. 

"We are standing today after a whole year has passed, and they are still there. A whole year has passed and it seems like the situation has only escalated."

The Hostage Family Forum also commented on the year-mark to October 7, saying that the past year has been "unbearable."

"It's inconceivable that 101 hostages—our loved ones, our family members, our children, our parents, our grandparents—remain captive in the hands of the terror organization Hamas, held in appalling conditions," the forum added.

"As we mark this somber anniversary, we urge the world not to grow silent or complacent. Do not forget us. Do not forget the hostages. This is a humanitarian global crisis, with the hostages representing 24 different nationalities and five religions."

"Every day that passes brings another day of unimaginable suffering for the hostages and their families. Time is of the essence."

The forum organized a panel Sunday night at which released hostages and hostage families will speak, along with performances from Israeli artists.

The Tikva (Hope) Forum, which represents some hostage families, also commented. "As long as he controls the humanitarian aid, as long as he has oxygen and doesn't feel a gun to his head, [Hamas Leader Yahya] Sinwar will continue this way for many more months. Meanwhile,  our loved ones will remain in captivity in Gaza, G-d forbid."

The forum went on to call on leaders to stop giving aid to "rethink the humanitarian aid process," calling on them to "stop giving Hamas the supplies that revitalize them!"

"A full year since this war began, it is time to vanquish Hamas by increasing the pressure in a way that will return our loved ones to us as soon as possible," the Tikva Forum concluded.

"It is unimaginable that tomorrow we will mark an entire year of captivity for the hostages," the Women's Protest for the Return of the Hostages who organized the morning's protest said. 

"It seems that bringing back the hostages, which was once a central goal, is not even on the cabinet's table. Instead of bringing the hostages home in a deal and ending the war, the government and its head prefer to drag us all to political regional war," said the organization.