HUNDREDS of Israelis gathered in what has come to be known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for the release of nearly 140 people still being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
As speakers took to the stage, the crowd held placards bearing messages like "they trust us to get them out of hell", and "bring them home now".
Ruby Chen, the father of 19-year-old hostage Itai Chen, said from the podium: "We are asking the Israeli cabinet, the war cabinet, to explain what exactly is on the negotiating table.
"We demand to be part of the negotiation process," added Chen, whose son is a soldier and was taken while on duty.
"Get them out now, immediately, whatever the price might be."
Demonstrator Yoav Zalmanovitz said, the government "did not care" about the hostages.
"They want revenge," he said. Zalmanovitz said his 85-year-old father, Arye, was taken alive to Gaza and died there weeks later.
Hamas dragged around 240 hostages back to Gaza during its Oct 7 attack on Israel, and fears for their safety have gripped the public through eight weeks of war.
A one-week truce deal that ended on Dec 1 saw 105 hostages released from Gaza, among them 80 Israelis — mostly women and children — freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians jailed by Israel.
However, efforts to revive the deal have stalled, and Israel says at least 137 hostages are believed to still be in Hamas captivity.
In a video testimony played at the rally, freed hostage Margalit Moses, 77, said she was hauled off to a tunnel under Gaza, where one of her Hamas guards took away a machine she used to help her breathe at night.
"Forty-nine days I did not sleep," she said.
"There were mental difficulties, there were physical difficulties and every day that passes it becomes more and more difficult."
Meanwhile another captive, Itay Regev, 18, said: "Every day feels like an eternity... Whether it's the hunger, the longing for family."
In the crowd on Saturday, Eli Eliezer, who claimed he had a relative among those still being held, said the government should have prioritised returning the hostages over pressing its war against Hamas.
"They should have made a deal earlier," the 61-year-old engineer said. "It's the government's job to keep its people and its land safe."
Earlier on the same day, 25-year-old Sahar Baruch, who hailed from one of the kibbutzim hit hardest on Oct 7, became the latest captive to be confirmed dead.
He was "kidnapped from his home by Hamas to Gaza... and murdered there", the community of Beeri and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a joint statement, without providing evidence.
The day before, Hamas had posted a video purporting to show Baruch's body, saying he was killed during a failed rescue attempt. AFP was unable to independently verify the video's authenticity.
In late October, Israeli soldier Ori Megidish, 19, was rescued in a military operation just over three weeks after she was kidnapped from an observation post on the heavily militarised Gaza border.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the Oct 7 attack, which Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Its relentless bombardments and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 17,700 people, also mostly civilians, according to the territory's Health Ministry.
The writer is from AFP