{"id":422912,"date":"2025-09-14T05:30:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/422912\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T05:30:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:30:20","slug":"every-delay-is-mortal-danger-hostage-families-denounce-qatar-strike-demand-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/422912\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Every delay is mortal danger’: Hostage families denounce Qatar strike, demand deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crowds assembled in Tel Aviv and across Israel on Saturday evening to demand that the government reach a ceasefire deal for the release of the 48 remaining hostages in Gaza, as the families denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Tuesday\u2019s strike targeting Hamas\u2019s leadership in Qatar<\/a>, which appears to have set back talks for a Gaza hostage-release and ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the main weekly rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, former hostage Sharon Alony Cunio<\/a>, whose husband David<\/a> remains in Hamas captivity in Gaza and is thought to be alive, accused the government of life-threatening procrastination in the release of the remaining 48 captives.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu opposes the approach that he himself initiated,\u201d she said, presumably referring to the prime minister rejecting a temporary hostage deal, which he had once said he preferred over a comprehensive agreement. \u201cThe negotiations have been cut off again, and this time with fire and pillars of smoke. Every delay is a mortal danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not prepared to become a widow because of hesitancy or torpedoing\u201d of a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, she continued. \u201cI am not prepared to become another name in the list of victims of government obtuseness. I am demanding to save David\u2019s life and those of all the living hostages, and to bring back all the fallen hostages now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alony Cunio said her husband was left in captivity \u201cwhen Israel decided to thwart the second deal\u201d earlier this year, collapsing it after what should have been the first of three stages, \u201cand also when Israel went on an assassination mission in Qatar\u201d this past Tuesday, which Netanyahu hinted earlier on Saturday had failed<\/a> to meet its goal of taking out Hamas\u2019s top leadership abroad.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m dying of fear. What is he going through now?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Sharon Alony Cunio at a rally in Tel Aviv\u2019s Hostages Square on September 13, 2025. (Lior Rotstein\/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t let our country enter a \u2018hostage routine,\u2019\u201d she vowed. \u201cThere will be no routine here until they come back \u2014 in a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maccabit Meyer, aunt of twin captives Gali<\/a> and Ziv Berman<\/a>, also speaking at the rally, assailed Israel\u2019s decision to target Hamas\u2019s top brass in a strike in Doha.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, of all times, it\u2019s necessary to eliminate the political arm [of Hamas] because there\u2019s \u2018an opportunity\u2019,\u201d she said sarcastically, as the crowd jeered. \u201cThere are opportunities for everything except for Gali and Ziv and the rest of the 48 hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the hell is the shame?\u201d Meyer asked. \u201cHow can it be that nobody [in the government] shouts, \u2018Enough\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the government, she asked: \u201cWhere is your heart and conscience? How are you not afraid we\u2019ll get back 48 coffins \u2014 maybe fewer because some will disappear?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Maccabit Meyer, aunt of twin hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, speaks in Hostages Square, September 13, 2025 (Lior Rotshtein \/ Hostages Families forum)<\/p>\n

Despite opposition from hostage families and much of the public, Israel is pressing ahead with its expanded offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City. The military has urged a full evacuation of the area holding around 1 million people ahead of an expected invasion.<\/p>\n

Far-right members of Israel\u2019s governing coalition have cornered Prime Minister Benajmain Netanyahu, threatening to topple his government unless Israel pushes ahead with an expanded operation in Gaza City, despite serious misgivings by many in the military leadership and widespread opposition among Israel\u2019s public.<\/p>\n

Hamas has warned Israel that the planned offensive to conquer Gaza City would subject hostages in the area to the \u201csame risks\u201d as the terror group\u2019s fighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be your shame forever,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cThe people want them back and the people will remember\u2026 you\u2019ve messed with the wrong people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former captives Keith and Aviva Siegel<\/a> also called to reach a deal, which Keith stressed was \u201cnot just an emotional duty, not just a moral duty,\u201d but a \u201cJewish, national and human duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Keith and Aviva Siegel at a rally in Tel Aviv\u2019s Hostages Square on September 13, 2025. (Uriel Even Sapir\/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)<\/p>\n

Fourteen-year-old former hostage Alma Or<\/a>, whose parents were murdered in the Hamas invasion of Kibbutz Be\u2019eri on October 7, 2023, and whose father Dror\u2019s<\/a> body is still held by the terror group in Gaza, said slain captive Carmel Gat<\/a>, with whom she was abducted, \u201ccould have been with us, alive, had the deal happened in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gat was murdered alongside five other hostages in a tunnel under Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, last August.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome things can no longer be changed, but bringing my father back for the burial he so deserves \u2014 that\u2019s possible,\u201d said Alma. \u201cA girl should not have to beg for her father\u2019s remains.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOctober 7 has to end,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone must come back, in a deal, now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Alma Or, an Israeli hostage released from Hamas captivity in 2023, speaks at a rally in Tel Aviv on September 13, 2025. (Lior Rotstein\/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)<\/p>\n

Also on Saturday night, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum declared Netanyahu to be the \u201cone obstacle\u201d to a ceasefire and hostage release deal, after the premier hinted on social media that Israel\u2019s Doha strike failed to kill Hamas\u2019s leadership, and asserted that \u201cgetting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe targeted operation in Qatar proved beyond any doubt that there is one obstacle to returning the 48 hostages and ending the war: Prime Minister Netanyahu. Every time a deal approaches, Netanyahu sabotages it,\u201d the forum said in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time has come to end the excuses designed to buy time so he can cling to power,\u201d it adds. \u201cThis stalling has already cost us the lives of 42 hostages and threatens the lives of additional hostages who are barely surviving after nearly two years in captivity, as well as the recovery of those who have died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Among the bodies held by Hamas is an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.<\/p>\n


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