To mark the 150th day of the Israel-Hamas war, volunteers from the North West Friends of Israel organization gathered in downtown Manchester to raise awareness of the hostages that are currently held by Hamas in Gaza.
Naomi Brokarsh, a participant of the event, told Maariv, "The public's reaction ranged from lack of awareness of the hostages to a few shouts of, 'You're killing my people,' 'Israel is a terrorist state,' and 'Free Palestine'. Despite these ignorant reactions, most of the responses we received were of overwhelming love and support, including passersby who joined us in calling for an urgent release of all the hostages. One passerby was brought to tears after seeing the posters. She was Israeli and had not encountered local support for the hostages until now. We will not stop until each hostage is brought home."
Remarks from family member of young hostage
Hadar, cousin of Almog, a male held hostage in Gaza, said: "It's amazing, and we appreciate it very much. We are so excited that people we don't know are helping us all over the world, so I wanted to thank them for that. It's very important that people know about this urgent situation, and that it's not a normal situation. People should know that the hostages are innocent citizens. They are victims."