‘We’re free in body, but not spirit’: Ex-hostages urge release of remaining captives

Tens of thousands of people rallied in cities across Israel on Saturday night, continuing the weekly protests and demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and for the return of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The rallies focused on the “incomplete independence” that Israel faces this year, while 59 hostages are still held in Gaza by terrorists, days after the country marked its 77th Independence Day.

In a statement released Thursday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum called on the public to come to Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, adding that without the captives, “there will be no complete independence for the country, and no national rehabilitation.”

Saturday’s demonstrations came hours after Hamas released a propaganda video featuring hostage Maxim Herkin, the second such clip of the Russian-Israeli captive put out by the terror group in the past month. In the latest video, Herkin appeared to be severely bandaged up. Hamas claimed that he was in a tunnel allegedly targeted in an Israeli airstrike.

The Families Forum requested that media outlets not publish the video or stills from it unless Herkin’s family provides approval.

The main rallies in Tel Aviv featured speeches from several former hostages, including Omer Shem Tov, who was released from Hamas captivity in February as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, and Maya and Itay Regev, siblings who were released during the first truce in November 2023.

The three former captives told the crowd at Hostages Square the story of murdered captive Ori Danino, whom they had all met the night before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, saying that he ran back into the battles at the Nova music festival to save them during the Hamas onslaught.

“He didn’t have to, but he did it. Because that’s what courage looks like,” said Maya Regev. “Ori paid for that choice with the loss of his independence, and after 11 months of harsh captivity, he paid with his life.”

“Ori… symbolized the true Israeli spirit, the spirit that must continue guiding us: we don’t leave anyone behind,” Itay Regev added.

When he and his sister Maya were freed, “we came back to life, but we couldn’t really go on and tend to ourselves when a massive part of our heart was sitting there waiting to be saved,” Itay said.

“And I stayed behind, feeling abandoned, forgotten,” said Shem Tov. “And even now that the three of us have our liberty, we’re free in body, but not in spirit.”

Maya Regev then addressed Israel’s decision-makers: “The power to bring back the captives is in your hands. The responsibility is yours.”

The three spoke in front of thousands of protesters waving Israeli flags, yellow hostage flags, and banners reading “Netanyahu is a danger to Israel” and ones saying that there can be “no independence” as long as hostages are held in Gaza.

At the nearby anti-government rally, Boaz Zalmanovich, son of slain captive Aryeh Zalmanovich, said his father’s body is “being ransomed by Hamas and the prime minister,” eliciting jeers from the 1,500-odd crowd outside the IDF headquarters on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road.

“My father lies silent in a pit in Khan Younis, and we have to scream and shout,” he said.

Zalmanovich said Independence Day left him wishing two things: That none of the 24 living captives join the ranks of the “victims of abandonment in Hamas captivity,” and that the 35 confirmed dead would be buried in Israel.

“Our loved ones will not be abandoned,” said Zalmanovich. “Their souls will not be captive in the hands of the coalition of death.”

He added that he wished Netanyahu would accept responsibility for the failure to prevent the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which the prime minister has repeatedly refused to do.

“Obviously, there’s no chance,” said Zalmanovich. “If he accepts responsibility for the failure of October 7, for the massacre, for the hostages who were murdered and the hostages who are still there, he’ll see a merciless, inhuman character, during whose time the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust took place — and he’ll understand that it’s he himself.”

Before the rallies, Einav Zangauker, the prominent protest leader and mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, noted that the IDF was calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers for an expansion of combat in the Gaza Strip.

“Netanyahu is calling up reservists to fight again in Gaza, which will only bring about the death of hostages. This is unbelievable and unforgivable,” Zangauker said. “He is sending soldiers into an unnecessary war, a war he refuses to end.”

“Netanyahu already explained that returning hostages is a secondary goal; the life of my son is secondary for him,” she said, referencing the premier’s comments earlier in the week that defeating Hamas is the “supreme goal” of the war, not getting the hostages home.

His comments were contradicted a day later by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who said that the military’s primary objective in the war is the return of all captives, both living and dead.

Terror groups in Gaza currently hold 59 hostages, all but one were taken captive during the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

During that attack, terrorists took 251 captives and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

There are 24 hostages believed to be alive who were slated for release in the proposed second stage of the ceasefire deal agreed upon in January, which fell apart after its first stage ended in March, with Israel renewing the fighting in Gaza.

Efforts to reach another hostage-ceasefire deal have stalled in recent weeks, with neither Israel nor Hamas budging on their positions in the talks.

Hamas insists that any deal to release captives will require an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and Israel has long said that it refuses to agree to an end to the conflict while Hamas remains in power in the Strip.