Hostages’ families mark 500th day of captivity with fast, rallies across Israel
Activists block roads, march to Knesset, call for 500-minute fast to mark days since hostages’ abduction; ‘They’ve already been fasting for 500 days,’ says relative
Marking the 500th day since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and kidnapping, relatives of the hostages were leading rallies and fasts across the country on Monday to call attention to the captives’ plight.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum was leading the events, encouraging a 500-minute fast and daylong protests under the banner: “Get them out of hell.”
The fast started at 11:40 a.m. and will end at 8 p.m. with a rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square
On Monday morning, hostage families and activists blocked roads across the country, including the central Namir Road in Tel Aviv.
Family members of hostages and dozens of supporters also gathered outside the Hostages and Missing Families Forum tent on Azza Street in Jerusalem, near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home, where they began a march to the Knesset.
Ahead of the demonstrations, freed hostage Ohad Ben Ami calls for mass participation in the nationwide demonstrations: “I intend to go outside and fight for them.”
Ben Ami was released by Hamas earlier this month, emaciated after 16 months of mistreatment.
“What strongly kept my hopes up down there was that I knew people were fighting for me,” he added, saying that what could truly raise the spirits of those still in captivity is if crowds head out to demonstrate on Monday.
“You have no idea how much strength it would give to those left behind,” he said.
Using words from the liturgy recited on Jewish fast days — “Please save us!” — Levi Ben-Baruch, uncle of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, wrapped in his prayer shawl and wearing tefillin, called for the return of all the hostages.
“We will fast 500 minutes for the captives,” he said.
“They’ve already been fasting for 500 days,” he added, asking the nation to fast with the families, to pray as one soul, as one heart.
“We want to know when they are all coming home,” said Ben Baruch, whose soldier nephew, Alexander, is not on the list of 33 hostages slated to come home in the ongoing first phase of the deal.
Maccabit Meyer, aunt of hostages Ziv Berman and Gali Berman, said that day 500 isn’t different from any of the other days.
“I want Ziv and Gali to be held in the hug of their mother Talia,” she said, calling on the nation to come out and join their cry.
Holding a handmade sign featuring the images of hostages whose families have recently received signs of life from released captives, Shai Dickmann, cousin of Carmel Gat who was murdered in captivity in Gaza at the end of August, noted at the start of the march to the Knesset that the hostages’ families have already experienced the end of one ceasefire in November 2023.
“If war [re]starts, it is a death sentence for many of the hostages,” Dickmann said.
“More than 80 years ago, my grandmother was in the Holocaust and waited for nations to help her, but she suffered and survived and came here to help create a nation of ideals so that it wouldn’t happen again,” he said. “We can’t wait for other nations to decide our fate; we must save them, now that we have a state, so that it won’t happen again.”
Uri Goren, cousin of Tal Haimi, who was killed on October 7, 2023, and whose body was taken to Gaza and is still held there, said that as details emerge of what released hostages have undergone in captivity, it is essential to bring all the hostages home.
Speaking in English, he expressed his gratitude to US President Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, adding that Trump has shown leadership and Witkoff has clearly stated that the administration is committed to releasing the hostages.
“The deceased hostages must come back for [a] final resting place,” Goren said, adding that the only way to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people is to bring back every last hostage in order to rebuild areas of Gaza and bring healing to all people.
Another rally was being held in Carmei Gat, the southern city where Nir Oz residents are living until their kibbutz is rebuilt.
Sylvia Cunio, who survived the Hamas terrorist massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, and whose two sons, David Cunio and Ariel Cunio, are being held hostage in Gaza, said: “I’ve been waiting 500 days. This is the longest October 7 of my life.”
Cunio’s son David was taken hostage with his wife, Sharon Aloni-Cunio and their twin 3-year-old daughters, as well as Sharon’s sister and the latter’s young daughter. The women and children were all released in a hostage deal in November 2023.
Sylvia Cunio’s youngest son, Ariel, was also taken hostage from Nir Oz on October 7, along with his girlfriend, Arbel Yehoud. Yehoud was recently released after being held hostage in isolation in Gaza for 15 months.
“I want my sons now, now! Don’t abandon us; continue with the second stage of the talks, bring them home,” Cunio pleaded.
At Kibbutz Be’eri, survivors gathered at the site of the devastated community to mark 500 days since the Hamas terrorist attack that destroyed much of the kibbutz killed over 100 residents. During the attack, Hamas kidnapped over 30 of the kibbutz’s residents and took them as hostages into Gaza.
One of the speakers was Nira Sharabi, whose husband Yossi Sharabi was killed in captivity in Gaza and whose brother-in-law Eli Sharabi was recently released from captivity and found out that his wife and two daughters were killed in their Be’eri home that day.
Sharabi said that after all the living hostages are returned, they will have to turn to the next impossibly difficult task of bringing back the bodies of all those killed and taken to Gaza — or who have died in captivity — and burying them in Israel. Hamas is believed to be holding the bodies of at least 36 people.
“Our beloved Yossi, until he’s be buried here, we’re can’t say our farewell to him and can’t continue forward,” she said.
Other Be’eri residents spoke, including former hostage Raya Rotem, who said she knows what it’s like to be a hostage in Gaza, even though she was “only” there for 54 days.
“What happens to a person who is kept there for 500 days? If there hadn’t been additional releases in the previous [November 2023] deal, I wouldn’t have left the house where I was kept and where I separated from Itay Svirsky, who was supposed to mark his 40th birthday,” Rotem said, referring to a hostage who was later killed in captivity.
Seventy of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas has so far released 24 hostages — civilians, soldiers, and Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began in January.
The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January. PJC
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