Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with representatives of 229 families of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv.
"We will exhaust every possibility to bring them home," he said to the families at their meeting. The meeting was also attended by his wife Sara Netanyahu, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and Gal Hirsch - the coordinator for hostages and missing persons.
This is the second meeting the Prime Minister has held with the families since October 7. Netanyahu also stated that this is one of the goals of the war, and claimed that "the key is the degree of pressure on Hamas. The greater the pressure, the greater the chances" of their release.
"We have exhausted every option to bring them home. An effort is underway, I'm not sure how much people understand," Walla reported the prime minister as saying.
The meeting saw a lot of crying from the parents of the abductees. Seven families were reportedly present.
"There's much anxiety, frustration, and especially enormous anger that no one from the Israeli cabinet bothered to meet with the families of the abductees to explain to them one thing - whether the ground operation endangers the safety of the 229 abductees in Gaza," the families added in a statement. "The families are anxious about the fate of their loved ones and are waiting for an explanation. Every minute that passes feels like an eternity. We demand from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the members of the war cabinet - to meet with us." Gallant will reportedly meet with the families on Sunday.
At the end of the meeting, the parents of the hostages held a press conference, where they discussed their meeting with Netanyahu. One father said: "We must unite, we have a cruel enemy who hears us and draws conclusions from everything we say. We want all the hostages healthy, intact, and with us now."
A mother of another hostage said: "We left a two-hour meeting a few minutes ago. A very poignant and blunt meeting and clear things were said in it, with an unequivocal demand that any operational activity should consider the hostages' safety. We demanded that no move that endangers the fate of our family members should be carried out and that every move take into account the safety of our loved ones.
"It was made clear for us, the families, that a deal of immediate return of all is in the cards and will have broad national support," she said, receiving applause from the audience and chants of "return them now."
Protests for the release of the abducted
Families waiting outside were called on by the police to evacuate on the grounds of violating instructions of the Home Front Command. They refused, claiming: "There are people here whose children are kidnapped in Gaza - we have no lives."
Hundreds protested in front of Netanyahu's home the same day in Caesarea in solidarity with the hostages in Gaza, and demanded their release.
Protesters also called for the immediate resignation of the prime minister. They also lit candles that formed the inscription "Guilty."
There was also a right-wing demonstration in support of Netanyahu at the scene.
Demonstrations were also held for the release of hostages in Beersheba and Herzliya.
For the first time since the start of Operations Swords of Iron, Netanyahu held a press conference on Saturday shortly after meeting with the families of the hostages, where he said that "this is Israel's second war of independence. It will be long, and we are only at the beginning."