The Times of Israel - 'Israel choosing endless war': 40 freed hostages demand end to fighting, return to talks

Letter, also signed by 250 family members of hostages, calls renewed fighting in Gaza Strip a ‘criminal policy’ that risks lives of living hostages, disappearing the fallen

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-choosing-endless-war-40-freed-hostages-demand-end-to-fighting-return-to-talks/

https://archive.ph/siomN



Forty survivors of Hamas captivity and 250 family members of hostages in Gaza signed a letter on Friday calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to halt Israel’s renewed military activities and return to the negotiating table with Hamas to secure the release of the remaining 59 hostages, warning that failure to do so would condemn the living hostages to death.

“This letter was written in blood and tears. It was drafted by our friends and families whose loved ones were killed and murdered in captivity and who are crying out: ‘Stop the fighting. Return to the negotiating table and fully complete an agreement that will return all of the hostages, even at the cost of ending the war,” the letter implored. “The military pressure is endangering them and there is nothing more urgent than returning all hostages.”

In mid-January, Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage-ceasefire and prisoner-release deal that officially lasted 42 days and saw the terror group release 30 living hostages and the bodies of eight slain captives, while Israel released almost 2,000 security prisoners and inmates, before the expiration of the deal’s first phase. The deal had originally envisioned a potential second phase that would see a permanent end to the war in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages, but Israel has refused to allow any long-term settlement that would keep Hamas as the governing power in the Strip.

“We all support [stopping the fighting],” the letter continued. “Those who returned from captivity and endured the horrors in their flesh, the families of the hostages still in Gaza and paralyzed with terror, those who received their loved ones back into an embrace, and those who were forced to bury their loved ones, knowing they could have been saved.”

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