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    • Hostage family members demonstrate at Knesset for opening of winter session – Israel News
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    Hostage family members demonstrate at Knesset for opening of winter session – Israel News

    Pabio Posted on

    Family members of the hostages, joined by activists and hostage organizations, gathered at the Knesset on Monday to defend the interests of the hostages on the first day of the Knesset winter session after a one-month break.

    Family members have spoken at numerous Knesset committee meetings, and multiple demonstrations and protest installations have sparked clashes with the Knesset Guard.

    Nearly 20 women dressed in the same clothes as Naama Levy when she was captured, their faces painted in blood and their hands tied, stood silently at the back of the meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women and gender equality.

    They also demonstrated near party offices as Knesset guards tried to evacuate them.

    Parents and families of the hostages staged a sit-in in front of the party offices before being forced to leave by the Knesset guard.

    Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza and their supporters demonstrate in the meeting hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, September 29, 2024. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

    Nissan Kalderon, who participated in the sit-in and whose brother Ofer remains a Hamas captive, expressed frustration at being forced to leave, saying the real disturbance to public order is that his brother has been in captivity for a year.

    The family members of hostages staged a sit-in outside the Knesset dining hall, holding signs reading: “How can you eat when they are starving?” » Protesters also gathered in one of the Knesset dining rooms before being removed by the Knesset guard.

    The expectations of hostage families in the Knesset

    Esther Buchshtab, the mother of Yagev Buchshtab, who was killed in captivity, spoke at the Knesset Education Committee meeting, saying she was sure that when she returns for the winter session of the Knesset, it would be to hear the results of a state investigation. In October 7.

    She also expected the hostages to have returned home by the winter session, she added.

    Yagev was executed when IDF forces approached where he was being held, Buchshtav said, adding that she believes a deal is the only option to bring the hostages home.

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    “It’s hard for me to talk about it,” she said, adding that she was doing it so people would understand the situation.

    “I don’t know how you sleep at night.”

    “I don’t know how you sleep at night,” she said, adding that she hadn’t slept in a year.

    She stressed the importance of bringing hostages home alive, saying that when they come back dead, “they don’t come back in coffins. They come back in bags.”

    Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is still being held hostage, read a number of examples of sexual violence and violence against women committed by Hamas on October 7, expressing frustration at having read many of the same examples in committee before the holidays.

    “I read that the last time we had a meeting like this,” she said, adding that Israeli leaders need to “start acting like this is nothing new to them, like if Naama was not only the daughter of Ayelet and Yoni but their own daughter”, and (as) if they (had understood) that we are 12 days from the 400th day.

    “The terrorists who committed all the acts I read about are the same ones who are holding my sister.”

    “I will always thank you for organizing this committee meeting,” she told committee chairwoman MP Pnina Tameno-Shete, “but it is simply not enough,” she said. declared. “I feel like I’m being made fun of. How much longer can we keep this up?”

    “For 388 days, for the first time in Israeli history, so many women have been taken hostage, and they are still there.”

    A hostage deal to bring them home

    Many family members of the hostages insisted that a deal was the only way to bring the hostages home.

    Members of the Tikva Forum, which has been more reluctant to accept a deal and opposed a deal with Hamas, were also present in the Knesset on Monday.

    “If Hamas is dismantled, why bring it back?” asked Zvika Mor, father of Eitan Mor, who is still a Hamas captive, stressing that he is not against a deal but wants to deal with those holding the hostages rather than Hamas.

    He also stressed that he wanted to know the details of a deal before it was reached.

    “Of course, we want to bring the hostages back as quickly as possible. It is incredible that we are approaching the 400th day. Will Eitan also be gone to Hannuka?”



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