Israeli hostage families hold emergency protest after Gaza militants release videos showing emaciated captives
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/02/middleeast/israel-hostage-families-protest-gaza-intl
Protestors gathered in Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square” on Saturday to stage an emergency protest following the release of propaganda videos showing emaciated Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
Videos released by militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad this week showed Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski in a visibly fragile state. In one video posted, the undated footage of David is juxtaposed with images of starving Palestinian children.
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Steve Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy to the Middle East, attended the public plaza on Saturday amid the protests, one day after he visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip.
Witkoff later held a “very emotional meeting” that lasted nearly three hours with around 40 representatives of the hostage families, a source who was in attendance at the meeting told CNN.
During the meeting, Witkoff said ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas should be “all or nothing,” with all 50 hostages in Gaza being returned to Israel in one go, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum cited him as saying.
“The plan is not to expand the war, but to end it. We think the negotiations should be changed to all or nothing. End the war and bring all 50 hostages home at the same time – that’s the only way,” Witkoff reportedly said.
That's what everyone, including Hams, has wanted for many months. It's you Witkoff that kept coming with temporary pauses for 10 hostages.
Families call for Gaza deal to bring back captives during major rally
The families of several Israeli captives still held in Gaza have spoken at huge rallies taking place in Tel Aviv to call for a comprehensive agreement that brings back all captives and ends the war.
“Not only were our children kidnapped, you kidnapped us, too,” Michel Illouz, father of captive Guy Illouz, addressed the government during his speech to the crowds gathered at Hostage Square.
“You stole our identity, I lost everything, I lost hope, the joy of life, my heart, I lost my trust in the country.”
Ilay David, brother of captive Evyatar David, accused Hamas of using his brother and others as “live hunger experiments”.
Organisers said more than 60,000 people attended the rally in Tel Aviv.
הזוועות שעוברים החטופים, כפי שראינו כולנו, הוציאו את המוני אזרחי ואזרחיות ישראל לבוא ולתמוך במשפחות החטופים.
למעלה מ- 60 אלף איש הגיעו לעצרת החטופים בכיכר בתל אביב הערב ועוד עשרות אלפים לעצרות ברחבי הארץ.
העם אומר את דברו שוב ושוב - רוצים את החטופים והחטופה בבית ואת סיום… pic.twitter.com/MissYt0EkT
— מטה המשפחות להחזרת החטופים והנעדרים (@BringThemHome23) August 2, 2025
Translation: The horrors experienced by the hostages, as we have all seen, have brought masses of Israeli citizens to come and support the hostages’ families. Over 60,000 people attended the hostages’ rally in Tel Aviv’s square this evening, and tens of thousands more to rallies across the country. The people are speaking out again and again – they want the hostages back home and an end to the war. Only public pressure will bring the hostages back.
Israeli opposition leaders call for more protests, blast Hamas
Leading Israeli opposition figure Yair Golan released a video of himself participating in the huge rally in Tel Aviv, saying the images of two Israeli captives in Gaza that have been released by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are “heartbreaking”.
“We must take to the streets every day, all day, until everyone returns home in a deal,” he said.
Golan said Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers have “failed” and must immediately sign a comprehensive agreement with Hamas, “even at the cost of a permanent ceasefire”.
In an English-language statement on X, opposition leader Yair Lapid demanded global condemnation of the treatment of captives in Gaza.
“This is what starvation looks like,” he said, without mentioning starving Palestinians.
