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Family members of Israeli hostages held in Gaza have renewed their demands for a ceasefire deal, fearing that any hope for a hostage agreement may be lost amid escalating regional tensions following the Israeli assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a top Hezbollah commander.
Families blocked main roads in Tel Aviv on Thursday morning, launching nationwide rallies as the war entered its 300th day and any hope for a ceasefire in Gaza felt more distant than ever.
“Every day is hell. It sometimes doesn't feel people in the government understand that,” Orly Gilboa, whose 19-year-old daughter Daniela was taken hostage on October 7, told The National from central Israel.
“Every day I'm trying to make [a deal] happen, from the moment I wake up to 3am when I go to sleep. For 10 months – and it's hard to say it has been 10 months – I have been trying to meet every decision maker, the Prime Minister, every minister, to emphasise they need to be brought home.”
On Tel Aviv's Ayalon motorway, the family of Matan Zangkauer said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must stop “torpedoing” any prospect of a deal.
“For 300 days, my son Matan and 114 other hostages best-knownhave been abandoned in Hamas tunnels because Netanyahu is delaying a deal again and again,” his mother Einav Zangauker said.
“We are a step away from a multi-front war, and we need a hostage deal that will bring our loved ones home.”
Both relatives and Israeli lawmakers who spoke to The National said they had “no sympathy” for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh – but that the Tehran strike that killed him came at the “wrong time”.
Israel did not claim to be behind the attack that killed the main negotiator, but Iran and Hamas accused it of carrying it out.
“We were very close to a deal. Yesterday when I heard about Haniyeh, I was very scared. We don't know where we're going,” said Ms Gilboa.
“We know the region is watching Israel, we know they all want revenge. We don't know what it means for Israel. It's the not knowing that's very hard.”
On Thursday, a Hamas official said his group will start discussing the fate of the talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Gaza after “a week or two”.
The assassination threatens to derail months-long efforts by mediators to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, where about 39,400 people have been killed and more than 90,000 wounded since October.
“The Gaza and hostage negotiations, after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, cannot now be put up for discussion or resumption before a week or two,” a member of the political leadership of Hamas told The National.
“Netanyahu does not want to complete the deal, and says that no one can discourage him from moving forward with the war,” he added.
Qatar and Egypt, which have acted as mediators in faltering ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, suggested on Wednesday that the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh could further jeopardise efforts to secure a truce in Gaza.
“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X.
The family of Ms Gilboa has previously released footage of her in Gaza in an attempt to pressure the government, but said they have not heard from any minister – and have had no update on their daughter for more than 100 days.
Israeli government ministers have vowed to stay in Gaza until Hamas is “dismantled” and hostages are returned – but relatives say the only way to get them home is through a deal.
"They are interested in revenge"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel will remain in the war-torn enclave “until we destroy them all, restore security, and return the hostages”, while Prime Minister Isaac Herzog said Israel “cannot claim victory” until each hostage – 115 of whom are still held in Gaza – have been returned.
Hamas, Iran and other regional proxies have all vowed retaliation for the Israeli strikes, with Hamas saying the killing of Mr Haniyeh would result in “major repercussions”.
The militant group has said any deal with Israel must begin with a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli attacks killed at least 12 people on Thursday morning, in Al Maghazi refugee camp and Khan Younis.
Lawmaker Ofer Cassif, a member of the Hadash party, said the government does not care for the well-being of Israeli hostages, and is worried about a “vicious” retaliation against Israel for what he described as a political assassination.
“The government is not interested in the well-being and lives of the Israeli hostages and even soldiers or citizens in general, let alone the well-being of Palestinians,” he told The National from Jerusalem.
“They are interested in revenge, in blood, in violence, and surviving as a government.”
Shlomi Berger, the father of an army observer taken hostage, said the relatives “very much hope” the killings will not sever relations with Hamas or hurt the negotiation process.
“If that happens, our gain from this action is minimal. We know that everyone is replaceable, and to assassinate one or two or more, it doesn't change the picture at all,” he told Israel's radio 103.
The government “simply doesn't understand the urgency” felt by hostage families, he added.
Mr Cassif, who was almost expelled from the Israeli parliament for his support of the ICJ genocide case against Israel, said “the only thing” Israel should have done in the wake of October 7 was to engage in hostage release negotiations.
“Just a tiny proportion of the hostages were released by military operations. Most of those who were released were released by negotiations and a deal. Most of the attempts to free hostages … failed, and caused deaths of Palestinians, hostages and soldiers,” he told The National.
“Everybody knows the only way to release the hostages is a deal which entails the withdrawal of troops from Gaza, rehabilitation of the strip and the release of hostages. But as I said before, the government is lead by zealots, by bigots.”
American-Israeli Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son is a hostage in Gaza, told The National that the 300-day anniversary is “a devastating failure on so many different levels to these cherished souls who are still languishing in Gaza".
"It’s very clear that there’s so much immense suffering in this region: the hostage families and the hostages and hundreds of thousands of innocent people suffering in Gaza. There’s a surplus of pain and anguish and it’s time for all of that to stop,” she added
Ms Goldberg-Polin, who has become one of the best known parents of a Gaza hostage, said there must be a hostage deal and more humanitarian aid into Gaza, which “would be the most efficient way to bringing some relief to this really embattled neck of the woods".
"I’m praying the leaders and people in power will look at the people they are representing, take their pulse and see that across the board we are all ready for this to end,” she said.
Thomas Helm contributed to this report
