<\/p>\n
Families of Israeli captives arrive in Jerusalem, rally at PM\u2019s office | Israel-Palestine conflict News<\/p>\n
Family, friends and supporters of Hamas captives marched from Tel Aviv to demand immediate release, government action.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tens of thousands of protesters have arrived in Jerusalem after a five-day march from Tel Aviv to put pressure on the Israeli government for the immediate release of captives held by Hamas in Gaza.<\/p>\n An estimated 20,000 demonstrators, including family and friends of about 240 captives, held a rally in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2018s office on Saturday. They say the government has been ignoring their pleas to prioritise bringing their loved ones home.<\/p>\n The marchers walked for hours along the highway connecting the two cities, holding posters of the captives with the slogan \u201cBring them home now.\u201d<\/p>\n They want to put pressure on the government \u201cto do everything they can to bring the hostages back,\u201d said Noam Alon, 25, clutching a photograph of his abducted girlfriend, Inbar.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are expecting them to meet with us, we are expecting them to tell us how they are going to do it,\u201d he told the Reuters news agency. \u201cWe cannot wait any longer, so we are demand [ing] them to do that now, to pay any price to bring the hostages back.\u201d<\/p>\n The captives were taken during the October 7 attack by the Palestinian group on southern Israel, which also left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians. Since then, Israel launched a massive aerial and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, which is under Hamas\u2019s control, killing more than 12,000 people, also mostly civilians.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas\u2019s military wing, said on Saturday that it has lost contact with some of the groups responsible for the safety of the captives in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fate of the captives and those holding them is still unknown after we lost communication with them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Many relatives and friends of the missing fear they will come to harm in Israeli attacks on Gaza designed to destroy Hamas. The government says the offensive improves the chances of recovering hostages by putting pressure on Hamas.<\/p>\n Among those who marched to Jerusalem was centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, who has been mostly supportive of the war but has demanded Netanyahu\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n Miki Zohar, a member of Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet and party, was heckled on Friday when he visited the marchers at a rest stop.<\/p>\n Government \u2018isn\u2019t talking\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Hamas on Monday released a video of the first hostage confirmed to have died in captivity, and earlier said others have been killed.<\/p>\n That has stoked the anxiety of campaigners and relatives calling on the Israeli government to speed up any prisoner swap, and frustration with Netanyahu\u2019s insistence that discretion is required around the Qatari- and Egyptian-mediated negotiations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s impossible that there are 240 kidnapped people and the government \u2013 our government \u2013 isn\u2019t talking to [the relatives], isn\u2019t telling them what\u2019s going on, what\u2019s on the table, what\u2019s on offer, what are the reasons for and against. Nothing,\u201d campaigner Stevie Kerem told Reuters.<\/p>\n Oliver McTernan, who has worked on hostage negation for 20 years, said the families were right to be concerned. The only way to achieve the return of the captives, he said, is a ceasefire of enough duration to move them safely across the battlefield. Israel has said such a move would simply allow Hamas to rearm.<\/p>\n \u201cI think every day that goes on there is a risk \u2014 risk with bombings, risk with incursions and whatever \u2014 of the civilians, Israeli civilians, dying in Gaza,\u201d McTernan told The Associated Press news agency, adding that that \u201cshould be a priority of any government: to ensure their safety and their return to their families\u201d.<\/p>\n \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0635\u062f\u0631<\/a>
\n
\n\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631<\/a><\/p>\n