The families of Israeli captives in Gaza demanded Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “stop the killing and disappearance of the hostages” after Israel launched its deadliest strikes on the territory since a January ceasefire.
Overnight Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killed at least 400 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday, collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas as Israel vowed to use force to free its remaining hostages in the strip.
“The families of the hostages demand a meeting this morning with the prime minister, the defence minister and the head of the negotiation team, in which they will be assured how the hostages will be protected from the military pressure and how they intend to bring them back,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
“The families of the hostages will demand: Stop the killing and disappearance of the hostages now! First, return them – then everything else.”
The captives’ families called for a protest outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem later on Tuesday.
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“Families of hostages have been pleading for meetings with public officials responsible for the fate of their loved ones. Their pleas have gone unanswered,” the families said in a statement.
“Now it becomes clear – the public officials did not meet with them because they were planning the explosion of the ceasefire, which could sacrifice their family members.”
United Nations’ Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Muhannad Hadi described the waves of airstrikes as “unconscionable”.
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas‘s October 2023 attack which sparked the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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