Relatives of Israelis still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza stormed into a committee session in the Israeli parliament on Monday to demand that lawmakers take immediate action to bring their loved ones home.
Around 20 people rushed into the Knesset Finance Committee hearing in Jerusalem carrying signs and chanting “release them now, now, now!” Around 130 of the 253 people abducted and taken to Gaza during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel are feared to still be in captivity as the conflict enters its fourth month.
One woman involved in the demonstration held up pictures of three of her family members taken by Hamas. “Just one I’d like to get back alive, one out of three!” the woman cried, according to Reuters. Another held a sign reading: “You will not sit here while they die there.” Moshe Gafni, the chair of the panel, replied: “Redeeming captives is the most important precept in Judaism, especially in this case, where there is an urgency to preserving life.”
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Some protesters have started camping outside the Knesset building while others pitched tents outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Jerusalem on Sunday night, according to The Times of Israel, demanding that the government secure a deal for the immediate release of the hostages.
On Monday, Netanyahu told the families of hostages that Hamas has not made a concrete offer for their relatives to be freed, saying there “is no real proposal by Hamas.” “I am saying this as clearly as I can because there are so many incorrect statements which are certainly agonizing for you,” Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying.
His remarks came a day after he released a video message saying that he “utterly” rejected the Hamas’ conditions for the captives to be freed.
“Hamas is demanding, in exchange for the release of our hostages, the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of the murders and rapists of the Nukhba [the Hamas unit which led the Oct. 7 attacks], and leaving Hamas in place.” Netanyahu added that if Israel agreed to such conditions, “our soldiers would have fallen in vain.”
The video statement followed a Wall Street Journal report over the weekend claiming that the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar are pushing both Israel and Hamas to enter into a diplomatic process which would see more hostages released and ultimately an end to the war in Gaza.
For the time being, it appears the conflict will continue. Although some hostages were returned to Israel during a November ceasefire, Israel says 27 have already died in the enclave. In addition to growing domestic dissent, the Israeli government is also facing international pressure to end the war which, according to Palestinian health officials, has already seen over 25,000 people killed in Gaza.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday decried the “heart-breaking” and “utterly unacceptable” scale of the slaughter, noting that 150 U.N. workers were among those killed. “The Middle East is a tinderbox. We must do all we can to prevent conflict igniting across the region,” Guterres said at the opening of a G77+China summit in Uganda. “And that starts with an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to relieve the suffering in Gaza, allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in need, and facilitate the release of hostages, which should be immediate and unconditional.”
