Hostage families led a convoy of cars on Wednesday, driving from Tel Aviv’s hostage square towards the Gaza border. The convoy stopped at various locations in the South and will gather near Israel’s border with Gaza Thursday to call out to their loved ones, using huge speakers, the Hostage Families Forum said.
A line of cars snaked down the road in Tel Aviv just before the convoy got under way. Some of the cars used trailers to tow the burned husks of vehicles destroyed in the October 7 attack. Most were covered in yellow flags and decals calling to “seal the deal.”
Over 300 cars and thousands of peoplewere included in the convoy, and Israelis waited to show their support at various locations around the country, according to the forum.
“The only thing preventing a [hostage] deal is turning the Philadelphi Corridor into the be-all and end-all,” said Hagit Chen, mother of Itay Chen, speaking at the launch of the convoy. Itay was killed on October 7, and his body is still held in Hamas captivity.
“My Itay, I’m sorry. Sorry that in the eyes of the abandoning Israeli government, you are not enough, because the Philadelphi Corridor is more important to them than you and 107 other hostages.”
“The prime minister has a majority for a deal in the government; he has a majority in the Knesset, and he has a political safety net for a deal,” she said, adding that the only thing stopping him from making a deal is the Philadelphi Corridor, which he has made to be all-important.
“For 18 years, [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu chose, in all previous missions, not to go into the Philadelphi Corridor, and for seven months of fighting, the IDF was not there,” she concluded.
“What will be written in the pages of history about this damn war is not whether we conquered the Philadelphi Corridor or how many terrorists we killed, but if we took care of our hostages and brought them home,” said Shira Albag, mother of Liri Albag, who was taken from the Nahal Oz base on October 7.
Addressing Israel's leaders
“After 327 days and nights, your excuses have run out,” she added, addressing Israel’s political leaders. “This will be on your conscience, a wound that will never close and will be remembered by all as the destruction of the country for generations.
“I’m sorry, my Liri,” she concluded. “I am sorry they abandoned you and are continuing to abandon you.”
Ziv Abud, Eliya Cohen’s fiancé, who was taken hostage from a roadside bomb shelter after fleeing the Nova festival, said she hopes he will hear her when she calls out to him. “Today, I am driving to be close to you. I wish you would hear me. I wish you would come back already.”
Abud added that Israel has so far rescued eight living hostages, while the first deal freed 105. “I ask that our leaders ask themselves if they understand that any effort to delay a deal is gambling with the hostages’ lives.”