Family members of hostages held by Hamas ran toward the Gaza border Thursday morning, insisting that if Israel’s government was not going to bring the hostages home, they would.
The families were part of a group that had come to the Gaza border area to speak to their loved ones using huge loudspeakers.
“What do we have left other than just running out there ourselves to get them?” Gil Dickmann told The Jerusalem Post.
“We understood that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu just gave up on the hostages and doesn’t want a deal,” he said. “He keeps on making different excuses for not signing a deal.”
Dickmann’s cousin Carmel Gat has been held in Hamas captivity since October 7.
Another family member, with his voice breaking as he walked toward the border, said: “We will show the prime minister how to bring them [back]. If he doesn’t know how, we will do it and show him.”
They were quickly stopped by security forces, who sent them back to the original site of the gathering.
'No more excuses from Netanyahu'
“They stopped us because there were bombings in the area, and we didn’t want to risk the lives of other people, but we’re not going to give up,” Dickmann said, adding that the families would be back, joined by more people.
“We’re still days away from achieving a deal,” he said. “We don’t need any more excuses from Netanyahu. We just need him to sign the damn deal and get the hostages home.”
The families had traveled to the South in a convoy that left Tel Aviv on Wednesday to speak to their captive loved ones.
More than 300 cars and thousands of people were included in the convoy, said the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, adding that Israelis waited to show their support at various locations around the country.
Speaking into microphones from a makeshift stage Thursday morning, the hostage families called out to their family members.
“It’s Mama,” said Rachel Goldberg-Polin, calling out to her son Hersh.
“Hersh, we are working day and night, and we will never stop,” she said.
“It’s day 328,” Goldberg-Polin said. “We are all here – all the families of the remaining 107 hostages.”
She also said she wanted him to know she continues to say a blessing for him every Friday evening and every morning.
Ella Ben Ami, whose mother, Raz, was released in the November hostage deal and whose father, Ohad, is still being held hostage, called out to her father and said she was taking care of her mother.
“We are taking care of her every day,” she said. “She came back from there, and so will you, Dad. We are not giving up.”
“Ohad Ben Ami,” Ben Ami yelled into the microphone. “Can you hear me? I miss you. I will do anything, anything to hug you again. Ohad Ben Ami, hold on. Don’t break!”
Yehuda Cohen called out to his son, Nimrod, who is also a hostage: “Nimrod Cohen, Dad is talking to you. We are here next to the Gaza border to tell you that we are continuing to fight for you. I will not give up until you come home. I will continue to run everywhere in the world until we make a deal that will free you and all the hostages.”
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, who was abducted after he came to Israel to serve in the IDF as a lone soldier, called out to him: “Be strong. You are a strong guy. Take care of yourself. Survive. We love you.”
Mathilda Heller contributed to this report.