“We cannot tolerate a situation where our families are not treated like humans,” said Avidan Freedman, as the controversy over the release of Hamas hostages mounts in Israel. Several families of hostages converge on Saturday in Jerusalem to put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Dozens of hostage families arrive in Jerusalem on Saturday November 18 after five days of walking from Tel Aviv, Israel. They will go to the Prime Minister’s offices to demand the release of their loved ones who have been in the hands of Hamas for 43 days. An unbearable wait as the controversy mounts in the country. What does the Red Cross and Red Crescent do? Are they doing everything they can to meet the hostages?
A rabbi began a hunger strike on Friday November 10 to denounce the “passivity of humanitarians”.
Avidan Freedman drew a small circle on the ground in Hostage Square in front of the Ministry of Defense. He doesn’t plan to move, sitting on a plastic chair, bottles of sugar water as his only meal. “The Red Cross says that Hamas does not allow visits to the hostages and the story ends there, for the Red Cross and the whole world. For us, the story does not end there because humanitarian aid is aimed at all humans”, he says. His hunger strike aims to put pressure on the situation of the hostages to be truly taken into account, he defends. “There is humanitarian aid for some civilians in Gaza, but not detained Jewish civilians? It is not humanitarian.”
MEPs accuse humanitarians of a lack of will
Controversy is mounting in the country, with deputies accusing the Red Cross and Red Crescent of a lack of will. In Geneva, Switzerland, the foreign minister urged “the Red Cross to focus on humanitarian aid rather than targeting Israel”. The humanitarian organization says it is constantly working on this subject, but time is running out for Avidan Freedman. He wants radical pressure.
“Until there are humanitarian visits for the hostages, no more humanitarian aid should be sent.”
Avidan Freedman, rabbiat franceinfo
“It’s not that we want to stop humanitarian aid to Gaza, that would be a tragedy, that would be terriblerecognizes the rabbi. But we cannot tolerate a situation where our families are not treated as humans in the eyes of Hamas, certainly, and in the eyes of the world.”
No more humanitarian aid to Gazans so that Hamas accepts access to the hostages, necessary and urgent blackmail according to this rabbi. Behind him, there is a photo of a nine-month-old baby, the youngest hostage just a few days ago. Since then, a woman detained in the Gaza Strip has given birth.