About 40 former hostages and more than 250 family members of those still held captive by Hamas signed a letter on Friday calling for an immediate halt to the fighting and a return to the negotiating table.
"This letter is written in blood and tears," the signatories added. "It was composed by our friends and families whose loved ones were killed and murdered in captivity who are crying out: 'Stop the fighting, return to the negotiating table, and fully implement an agreement that will bring back all the hostages, even at the cost of ending the war. Military pressure is endangering them, and nothing is more urgent than bringing them all home.
"We all support this," they added. "Those who returned from captivity and endured the horrors, the families of those still in Gaza who live in terror, those reunited with loved ones, and those who had to bury theirs - knowing they could have been saved. Together, we all say: enough. Military pressure kills living hostages and buries the fallen. This is not a slogan - it's reality. 41 hostages paid with their lives, and we, their families, paid the price. They could have been returned to be embraced and rehabilitated - and now they won't."
The letter included a scathing critique of the government's conduct, accusing it of "choosing endless war over the rescue and return of the hostages, and is thus sacrificing them to their deaths. This policy is criminal - you do not have a mandate to sacrifice 59 hostages."
The letter concluded by saying that if the government does not listen to its demands, the "blood of the next hostage killed will be on your hands."
Among the signatories were former hostages Gadi Moses; Keith Siegal; Ofer Kalderon and his children Sahar and Erez; Eliya Cohen; Liri Albag; Sagui Dekel-Chen; Agam Berger; Karina Ariev; Arbel Yehud; Nili Margalit; Amit Soussana; Shani Goren; Gabriela Leimberg; Yaffa Adar; Ditza Heiman; Ofir Angel; Karen Munder and her mother Ruti; Liam Or; Adina Moshe; Hannah Perry; Raya Rotem; Liat Atzili; Noga Weiss and her mother Shiri; Margalit Moses; Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav; Danielle Aloni and her sister Sharon Aloni-Cunio; Ilana Gritzewesky; Karina Engelbert; Norlin Babdila; Meirav Tal; Amit Shani; Agam Goldstein; Shoshan Haran; Ofelia Roitman; Fernando Marman; Clara Marman; Ohad and Raz Ben Ami, and their daughters, Yuli, Ella, and Natalie.
IDF's return to fighting
The IDF returned to fighting late Monday night, around 2 a.m., by conducting dozens of extensive air strikes specifically on mid-level Hamas commanders and some senior Hamas political officials in Gaza. It was unclear if they were targeting senior Hamas commanders like Mohammed Sinwar, who might be holding Israeli hostages nearby.
Nearly eight hours after the IDF renewed the strikes, Hamas hasn't managed to fire a single rocket into Israel.
At around 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, IDF Arabic Spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee sent out a message to Gaza residents to move further into Gaza, away from the border with Israel, to avoid being attacked as part of the renewed hostilities.