‘Not in trickles, nor 50-day deals’: At rally, ex-hostage calls for release of all captives

As thousands of Israelis across the country demanded the release of hostages held by Hamas Saturday, Omer Shem-Tov, the former hostage freed last month, spoke in a video message at the weekly rally in Tel Aviv, urging the government to reach a deal that would release all remaining hostages at once instead of in stages.

“The time has come for the government of Israel to take matters into its own hands and make a decision that simply brings everyone home at once,” he said. “Not in trickles nor in 50-day deals.”

In the three-minute message, Shem-Tov shared some details of his time in captivity, saying that at times he would eat “a crumb a day.”

He also said he knew when Israel Defense Forces troops were near him.

“When I was above ground, there were terrible explosions. But even once I went underground, there were also a lot of explosions, earthquakes of sorts. I heard the tanks passing over me. I heard the soldiers, and [the terrorists] already had their weapons drawn.

“They were just with weapons in their hands, waiting for them to come,” he said.

“Everyone wants to vanquish the enemy,” Shem-Tov said a short while later in the video address. “Every soldier is a hero of Israel, but still, the military pressure makes it very difficult for the captives.”

During a statement to the press alongside other hostage relatives in Tel Aviv, Itzik Horn, whose one son Iair was freed last month but whose other son Eitan is still held hostage, demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a deal.

“This is the 526th day that 59 hostages have been held in the hell of Gaza,” Horn said.

“I came here today while recovering from surgery to hold up a mirror to Netanyahu. This mirror reflects the terrible results of Netanyahu’s selection method,” continued Horn.

He added that “the prime minister of the Jews is abandoning Jews who are undergoing a Holocaust. Netanyahu, look me in the eyes… We demand that you immediately end the war and bring everyone back all at once, and now.”

Nira Sharabi, whose husband Yossi was killed in captivity and whose body remains in Gaza, said that “526 days have passed since my beloved community in Be’eri underwent a terrible massacre; 102 were killed, 30 were kidnapped; 526 days since my heart was shattered into pieces, but I can’t allow myself to break down; 526 days that I’m a mother to my girls without my Yossi.”

“We cannot become accustomed to 59 men and women who are not returning to us, day after day after day. We cannot get used to families whose lives stopped on October 7,” she continued. “We must keep bringing them back, all of them. In one go, and not in trickles, with a whole country holding its breath for weeks and months, for over a year.”

Dani Elgarat, brother of slain hostage Itzik Elgarat, said Israelis will put Netanyahu “on trial for crimes against the nation of Israel.”

In the spirit of Purim, Elgarat likened the premier to Haman, who in the Book of Esther tried to exterminate the Jews of the Persian Empire. As Elgarat spoke, some protesters waved groggers — noise-makers traditionally sounded each time Haman is mentioned in the scroll.

Netanyahu is assassinating Israeli democracy

Meanwhile, at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, recently renewed anti-judicial overhaul protests were held. The main speakers were activist Shikma Bressler, who was one of the faces of the anti-judicial overhaul movement before the war broke out, and The Democrats party head Yair Golan.

Bressler spoke out against the government’s efforts to oust Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. “While all of us are preoccupied with the fate of the hostages and live between spins and dangerous leaks from the negotiations, the prime minister of abandonment is assassinating Israeli democracy,” Bressler said.

“If the attorney general is replaced by a despicable appointee from the government of ‘Hamas is an asset,’ we are likely to witness the collapse of many pillars of Israeli democracy,” she said, referencing comments made once by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, when the far-right politician celebrated the fact that Hamas allowed Israel not to negotiate with the Palestinians.

During his speech, Golan said Israelis “will force” Netanyahu to hold elections.

“Only someone who’s afraid of elections runs away from the people,” he told the crowd. “We’ll force you because it’s our country. We’ll force you because it’s our home.”

After the speeches, prominent anti-Netanyahu activist Moshe Radman announced that anti-government rallies would return next week to Kaplan Street, where mass weekly protests against the judicial overhaul were held in 2023 before the Gaza war.

He added that on Sunday, March 23, the protest movement will travel to Jerusalem in a massive car convoy.

Protests for the release of hostages were also held at intersections throughout Israel and in the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives since the start of the current ceasefire in January.

The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.

Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.

The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 59 hostages.