The Hostages and Missing Families Forum canceled its weekly protest in Tel Aviv this week, citing security concerns as fighting escalates between the Israeli military and the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.
The group’s main rally on Tel Aviv’s Begin Street, calling for a deal with the Hamas terror group to secure the release of the captives in Gaza, has been held alongside parallel protests across the country every week for almost a year, since Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages during their October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
The rally was canceled after Hezbollah fired a ballistic missile toward Tel Aviv early on Wednesday, which was intercepted, and as the Israel Defense Forces prepared for a potential ground invasion of Lebanon.
The Forum did, however, call on supporters to attend other, local rallies across the country, including in Jerusalem and Petah Tikva. It also called on supporters to take to balconies and intersections with flags and signs calling for the return of the captives.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF, as well as two Israeli civilians who entered the strip years earlier, and the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed in 2014.
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The hostages’ family members have expressed concern in recent days, amid Israel’s new offensive against Hezbollah, that the shift of attention northward has caused the plight of their loved ones to be forgotten.
Israel has ramped up fighting against Hezbollah in a renewed effort to allow tens of thousands of northern residents, who were evacuated from their homes in the wake of Hamas’s attack last year, to safely return, which has been impossible amid daily rocket and drone fire from Lebanon.
Families of hostages and released hostages attend a rally outside the United Nations headquarters in New York calling for a hostage release-ceasefire deal, September 20, 2024. (Daniel Tenenbaum, Benjamin Azoulay, Britt Shacham, Tamar Shemesh/Hostages Families Forum)
On Tuesday, the Forum urged the public not to forget the hostages who have been “abandoned in Hamas’s death tunnels,” adding, “We must not forget them and must not let anyone forget them!”
The group accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a “final abandonment of the hostages” after the premier issued a statement on Wednesday promising to return evacuated residents of the north to their homes, but making no mention of the hostages.
The Forum also commented Wednesday on Netanyahu’s trip to New York, denouncing his decision to attend the UN General Assembly while the “country is burning and 101 hostages have been abandoned.”
Hezbollah’s targeting of Tel Aviv for the first time on Wednesday caused a wave of event cancellations in the city, though the IDF Home Front Command has not issued any restrictions on gatherings there.
Most notably, pop star Noa Kirel postponed her concert on Thursday night at Yarkon Park, saying she did not want to endanger her fans, some 30,000 of whom were expected to attend.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Wednesday that the military is preparing for a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, telling a group of soldiers that their “military boots will enter enemy territory.”
“You can hear the planes above, we are attacking all day. Both to prepare the area for the possibility of your entry [into Lebanon], and also to continue causing blows to Hezbollah,” Halevi told troops of the 7th Armored Brigade during a drill simulating a ground offensive in Lebanon.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks with officers and soldiers during a drill in northern Israel, September 25, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Since October 8 — just a day after Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 251 — Iran-backed Hezbollah has attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border in solidarity with Hamas.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
After more than 11 months of cross-border violence that avoided an all-out war, the fighting has ramped up in recent days, with hundreds of rockets fired at Israel and intensive IDF airstrikes on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, as well as the targeted assassinations of a number of the terror group’s leaders.
As of last week, Hezbollah had named 512 members killed during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 88 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians had also been killed.
Israel’s offensive since Monday morning has killed more than 600 people, according to Lebanese health authorities. The figure does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel says many of the dead are Hezbollah fighters.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report
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