Tens of thousands of people gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square on Saturday night to press for US President Donald Trump to bring to completion his proposal for a Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum called on demonstrators to send a clear message to the government that they “will not stop until the last hostage returns.”
Families of hostages also warned that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir will try to sabotage the deal.
Hostage families demand deal
Several families urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to finish the Trump-backed deal in Saturday statements on social media.
“After two years of suffering, I feel closer than ever to hug my son Matan again,” Anat Angrest, the mother of hostage Matan Angrest, said in a statement on X/Twitter.
Yotam Cohen, brother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, said that “if the results of tonight are a hostage deal and an end to the war, there is no one who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than President Trump.”
Bar Godard, daughter of murdered hostage Meny Godard, expressed her doubts regarding the possible implementation of the steps laid out in the deal.
She noted that after experiencing “countless disappointments” at the hands of previous failed hostage-ceasefire deals, relief and celebration will only come “when all the hostages are on Israeli soil and all the soldiers have returned safely to their homes.”
A statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said, “We are in decisive days for a deal – days that will determine when the living hostages return for rehabilitation and the deceased return for proper burial. This is the hour when all of Israel must stand together and demand loudly: do everything possible to bring our brothers and sisters home.”