The families of those still held in Gaza urged the Israeli government to accept a cease-fire-for-hostages deal after Hamas said it accepts a comprehensive agreement to secure the captives’ release.
“After 700 days, we are finally hearing from both Israel and Hamas about their desire to reach a comprehensive agreement for the return of all hostages – the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement posted on Thursday on its X account.
“We call on Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, the US administration, and mediators to convene the negotiating teams immediately and have them sit around the negotiating tables until a deal is reached,” they said.
As per Daily Sabah, the relatives of the remaining 48 hostages held in Gaza said “time is running out” for them to be brought back to Israel. Some 20 of the hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and other groups since Oct. 7, 2023, are believed to be still alive.
“Take to the streets, stand with us, and cry out for the return of all hostages and an end to the war,” the statement from the families said.
The latest proposal on a potential cease-fire between Israel and Hamas goes back to a plan by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, which envisages a 60-day cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and the release of 10 living hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
But Netanyahu has since insisted he wants a comprehensive deal that facilitates the release of all hostages at once. He also wants Hamas to capitulate and demilitarise, which the Palestinian group rejects.
It remains unclear whether Hamas would be prepared to release all hostages at the same time, but on Wednesday, the group said it was still waiting for Israel’s response after it had agreed to the latest proposal for a cease-fire.
The resistance group said they were prepared to enter into a “comprehensive agreement” including the release of all hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
In the first protest of its kind by an Israeli company, the fashion chain Comme il faut has launched a campaign to call attention to the hunger situation in the Gaza Strip.
In social media posts in English, Arabic and Hebrew, the company’s posts feature women and one man dressed in black and holding empty pots under the slogan “Resist Starvation.”
“A short drive away from us, people are starving,” the well-known fashion chain wrote.
The company said it felt an urgent need “to scream on behalf of all those who cannot scream.” It added: “We demand an end to the starvation in Gaza – which also includes the hostages.”
On August 22, the globally recognised Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared a famine in Gaza City in the north and some neighbouring areas last month. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu dismissed the report as “an outright lie.”
Israel says the IPC’s assessment is based on false information provided by Hamas, which also controls Gaza’s health authority. The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli authority responsible for the Palestinian Territories, recently reported that around 300 trucks carrying food aid enter the embattled coastal strip daily.
Aid organisations have said the amounts of food being allowed into Gaza are nowhere near enough to improve the situation.
