Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza interrupted a Knesset committee meeting on Monday to push parliamentarians to secure the release of their loved ones.
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They came to cry out their pain and their anger to their parliamentarians. Families of Israeli hostages burst into the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on Monday January 22 to demand the release of their loved ones detained by Hamas and to denounce the inaction of elected officials.
This happened during a meeting of the finance committee. A few hours earlier, the Israeli government had just confirmed the death of a new hostage. The atmosphere is then studious in this small room of the Knesse: around twenty parliamentarians, seated around a table, working, when, suddenly, dozens of family members of hostages appear in the room. “You know it can’t continue like thisshouts a man who addresses the deputies directly. You will not sit here while our children die over there.”
Security tries to intervene, a stampede ensues. Another man shouts to the deputies: “If this was your family, what would you have done? I need my brother. Now!” The scene lasts a few minutes.
Calm eventually returns. The president of the commission then speaks: “I tell you that we will do everything so that the children, the brothers, the women come home and come back safe and sound.”
For weeks, families have been begging elected officials to support any agreement that could lead to the release of their loved ones. But for his part, the Israeli Prime Minister is inflexible. The conditions formulated by Hamas, such as the end of the war or the withdrawal of troops from Gaza, are categorically rejected by Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the results of the Israeli authorities, around a hundred hostages are still being held in Gaza.
