Tel Aviv marketing writer Yona Schnitzer, who attended the traditional Passover Seder meal last year, said he had a special prayer for all hostages that Palestinian militants still hold in Gaza.
He thought their freedom would be protected by the Passover 2025, but that didn’t happen.
“It has become so normative that Gaza has hostages. It’s surreal and heartbreaking,” said Mr Schnitzer, 36.
On Saturday night, Israelis observed that it was the beginning of the week-long Passover of the Jewish Liberty Festival since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, triggering the attacks of the Gaza war. Holidays are often a celebration of biblical stories of the ancient Israelites’ liberation from Egyptian slavery, where families gather to retell the story, sing and eat special food.
But for many Israelis, the ongoing imprisonment of hostages makes it difficult for people to feel the joy of the holiday.
“We will mark the holiday. We will not celebrate this holiday,” said Orly Gavishi-Sotto, 47, a university administrator from northern Israel. “We can only celebrate when all hostages are at home.”
Ms. Gavishi-Sotto said her family will put an empty chair on the Sed table, symbolizing the hostages in Gaza and they cannot be with their families.
The Israeli government said it believes 24 of the remaining 59 hostages are still alive.
On Saturday night, as Israelis gathered with their families to commemorate Passover, Hamas released a new video showing one of the hostages, Idan Alexander. In a statement issued by the hostage advocacy group, Mr. Alexander’s family asked the news media not to circulate videos.
In January, Israeli and Hamas negotiators agreed to a ceasefire that was supposed to bring freedom to the rest of the hostages. In the first six weeks of the deal, three hundred thousand hostages and eight bodies were returned, but Israel resumed its attack on Gaza on March 18 as the two sides failed to reach a consensus on the extension of the truce.
Since then, the Israeli military has begun a major bombing campaign and has taken more territory in Gaza, with officials talking about those who forced Hamas to release more hostages.
But hostage advocates fear that this latest attack is endangering the captives. According to Israeli officials, more than 30 prisoners have been imprisoned since the war began, as well as Israeli fires, forensic reports and military investigations.
According to the government, about 1,200 people were killed in Israel in the October 2023 attack. According to the region’s Ministry of Health, more than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, which did not distinguish between civilians and combatants in the casualties. More than 1,500 people in Gaza were killed due to the collapse of the ceasefire.
Omri Miran, 80, the son of Dani Miran, who is a hostage in Gaza, said he is planning a simple Seed with his family and is trying to assure his granddaughter that his father will come home.
Omri Miran, 48, was taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz by Palestinian militants to Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Israeli-Gaza border on October 7, 2023. He; his wife Lishay Miran-Lavi; according to the family, their two daughters, Roni and Alma, were initially held at the gun, but he was the only one who was forced to go to Gaza.
“Omri has been in the tunnel for a year and a half,” Milan said. “I don’t know what his mental state is. I can only hope he is strong enough to endure this tragedy.”
The Hostage Family Forum, which represents many of the captive relatives, calls on the Israelis to fix Cedes on an outdoor square in Tel Aviv, known as the “Hostage Square.” The group described Passover as “another free festival without real freedom.”
Odie Arbel, 77, a resident of Kibbutz Yiftah in northern Israel, said his family would use hostage-themed Haggadah, and the text he read during Seder tells the story of the liberation of the Israelites.
He said: “The key principle of Judaism and Israeli identity is the redemption of the captives.”
More than 68% of Israel said they believe the release of hostages is more important than taking Hamas out of power, according to a survey published by the Israel Institute of Democracy on Thursday.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would not end until Hamas military forces and the Gaza government were demolished. Hamas said it will not release all hostages unless Israel ends the war permanently.
Mr. Abel, who criticized the government, said he was also considering the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank as he reflected on the plight of the Passover hostages.
“I’m thinking about the difficulties of these two peoples,” he said.
