(Tel Aviv) Israeli Mandy Hoyland does not know any of the 130 hostages held in the Gaza Strip. But she strolls with emotion on the “Square of the Hostages” in Tel Aviv, among the installations dedicated to them, and attract hundreds of visitors every day.
Coming from Beit Shemesh, some 60 km from Tel Aviv, the sixty-year-old does not hide her pain as she looks at the photos of the hostages placed all over the square.
“I feel a lot of pain and sadness […] I don’t know any of them, but they are like our brothers and sisters,” she confides.
Since the day after the unprecedented attacks by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, the square, a rallying point for hostage families, has also become a place of pilgrimage.
According to Israel, 130 hostages are still in Gaza, 29 of whom are believed to have died, out of 253 people kidnapped that day.
The “Forum des otages”, a collective created on October 8, manages the activities of the square, renamed “Place des otages” by the city hall from October 24.
Between the tents of hostage families and the Forum stands which sell all kinds of objects, volunteers guide the groups and introduce them to relatives of hostages.
PHOTO SUSANA VERA, REUTERS ARCHIVES
A woman looks at a board displaying photos of hostages taken during the October 7 attack in Israel.
Two classes from a school in Beersheba (south) enter a narrow tunnel built by the Forum to make visitors understand the conditions in which the hostages survive, while the Israeli army believes that many of them are held in galleries underground.
For a few dozen meters, along walls covered with photos of hostages, visitors walk slowly in the darkness, where discreet speakers spew out the sounds of explosions.
Live day to day ”
At the exit, a tent welcomes the groups. That day, Avivit Yablonka, 48, told the story of his brother Chanan, 42, kidnapped while he was with friends at the Nova music festival, near the Gaza Strip, where more than 360 people were killed.
“Being a hostage sister means hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst,” says Mme Yablonka, who with his family waited 90 days for official confirmation that his brother, a former football player, was a hostage. “We have no proof of life, but we were told that he is in Gaza.”
Holding her portrait, she patiently answers questions from the students, some of whom, moved, hug her.
How can she continue to live normally? a young girl asks him. “We live in the present moment, day by day. I am sad, but I must continue to live for my family and for my brother’s children,” she explains, smiling, refusing to let herself be overcome by anger.
“It’s important that young people come to this square, because they can ask questions and not just see us on their television screen” and then “tell” others, she said.
Every Saturday evening on the square, thousands of people demonstrate to demand the return of the hostages. But during the week, diplomats, tourists, parents with their children, students… parade there uninterruptedly.
PHOTO SUSANA VERA, REUTERS
Demonstrators in the streets of Tel Aviv on February 11.
“Always hope”
“Buses full of people come from all over the country to identify with the hostages and their families,” explains Noa Haviv, a Forum volunteer, wearing a black T-shirt with the red and white slogan: “Bring back them at home now,” in Hebrew.
“Our goal is to be alongside the families of the hostages, and that it remains in the minds and hearts of everyone,” she adds.
Behind her stretches a long table, supposed to welcome the hostages on their return for a festive meal and partly covered with dirty water bottles and aluminum bowls, symbols of the harshness of their alleged daily life in Gaza.
Visitors can take home portraits of hostages as well as yellow ribbons that many Israelis wear on their wrists as a sign of solidarity. T-shirts, hats, bags and even umbrellas with the slogan calling for the return of the hostages are on sale, with the profits going to the Hostages Forum.
The groups follow one another and take photos in front of the giant hourglass or the wall clock indicating the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds that have passed since October 7.
PHOTO AHMAD GHARABLI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
A man stands in front of the wall clock showing the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds that have passed since October 7.
And there are those who come every day to show their support for the hostages, like the peace activists of the Women Wage Peace (WWP) movement. “We must be there to remind people that their suffering is not forgotten,” says one of them, Ofra Perel-Dekel.
Night falls on the square and a group can be heard singing a popular song: “Remember that there is always hope”.