‘200 days and nothing has changed’ – Hostage families mark 200 days of captivity

Hostage families lament waning support from Israeli public

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Family members of hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip marked 200 days of captivity with moving public displays in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night.

A panel made up of relatives of the hostages, bereaved parents, internally displaced Israelis, and a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre answered intimate questions from the audience.

The panelists discussed their feelings of guilt, whether they remained optimistic about the future, if they wanted to stay in Israel after the war, and other personal issues, the Times of Israel reported.

Yamit Ashkenazi, the sister of Doron Steinbrecher, who is still being held by Hamas, lamented that Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square has been visited less over the past weeks.

On her way to the square, she said she witnessed “thousands of people passing by with Israeli flags and shirts of the Hostages Families Forum, but they’re going in the other direction,” referring to the increasing anti-government protests in recent weeks.

“If you’ve already left your house, why not come and strengthen us, why not come to Hostages Square?”

After the panel discussion, a group of hostage family members walked across the street to sit down outside of the Ministry of Defense Headquarters. Some were painted with red paint symbolizing blood and others were seen with their hands tied. Their message was “200 days and nothing has changed,” a reference to the traditional question posed by the youngest child at the traditional Passover me: “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

Orli Gilboa, the mother of kidnapped soldier Daniela Gilboa, said: “Two hundred days; who believed we would get to this number? Two hundred days you are with these scoundrels and they do nothing to get you back… Please, the cabinet, Bibi, everyone, please give her back to me, give her back to me, how much longer can I endure?”

Other protesters threw quartered pita breads painted red at the entrance of the base to protest the “cabinet’s disregard for the lives of the kidnapped who have been receiving a quarter of a pita for 200 days.”

Following the protest at Defense Headquarters, around 1,000 protesters marched toward Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv to call for the hostages’ release, Ynet News reported.

Similar protests were also held in other towns across Israel. In Haifa’s Book Square, a protest was held under the motto “200 days of neglect.”