A group representing the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza plans to boycott the government’s commemoration of the first anniversary of the October 7 attack, frustrated by the slow progress in negotiations to bring back their loved ones.
“The Israeli government’s glaring inability to secure the hostages’ return makes any attempt to conclude this chapter impossible,” the Hostage Families Forum said in a statement on Wednesday. “Since October 7, the situation has remained stagnant.”
The government is scheduled to hold a formal memorial event on October 7, a year after Hamas’ attack on Israel. Transport Minister Miri Regev, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, has been appointed by the government to organize the memorial.
“A year has passed since citizens were abandoned in the greatest disaster in Israel’s history. One-hundred-and-nine hostages have yet to return, and the living have not been brought back for rehabilitation, nor have the bodies of the murdered been returned for burial,” the forum added.
The forum said it would instead join communities of the Gaza border area and southern Israel to mark October 7.
Monthslong talks to release the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza have repeatedly stalled as mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt ramp up efforts to reach an agreement. Israel insists that it won’t end the war until Hamas is eliminated from Gaza and has demanded that it retain control over the Gaza-Egypt border and restrict the movement of armed men from the south of the strip to its north. Hamas has rejected those demands.
There are currently 109 Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, including 36 believed to be dead, according to data from the Israeli government press office. This week, the bodies of six Israeli hostages were retrieved from tunnels in Gaza in an Israeli military operation in the city of Khan Younis.
Credit: cnn.com
