The hostages are still being held in Gaza shadow on Easter in Israel

When Yona Schnitzer, a marketing writer from Tel Aviv, attended the traditional Easter meal last year, he said a special prayer for the return of all hostages who are still holding by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

He thought that their freedom would believe in Easter 2025, but this did not happen.

“It has become so normal that there are hostages in Gaza. It is a surreal and shameful matter,” said 36 years old.

On Saturday evening, the Israelis will notice the beginning of Easter, the Jewish Freedom Festival, which lasted for a week, for the second time since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. The holiday is usually a celebration of the biblical story of the old Israelis who are released from slavery in Egypt, where families gather to re -tell that story and sing songs and eat private foods.

But for many Israelis, the constant families of the hostages made it difficult to feel the joy of the holiday.

“We will mark the holiday. We will not celebrate it.” “We can only celebrate when all hostages are at home.”

Mrs. Gavishi Soto said her family will put an empty chair on the SEDER table, symbolizing the hostages in Gaza who cannot be with their families.

The Israeli government said it believed that 24 out of 59 hostages are still alive.

In January, the Israeli and Hamas negotiators agreed to the ceasefire, which was supposed to lead to the freedom of the rest of the hostages. Thirty live hostages and eight others were returned during the first six weeks of the agreement, but Israel resumed the attacks on Gaza on March 18 after the two sides failed to agree to extend the truce.

since then I began a major bombing campaign It seized more lands in Gaza, while officials said it was offered To force Hamas to launch more hostages.

But the hostages defenders are concerned that this last attack endangered the prisoners. More than three scales They were killed in captivity Since the beginning of the war, by both their kidnappers and Israeli fire, according to Israeli officials, forensic reports and military investigations.

About 1,200 people were killed in the October 2023 attack, and tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed in the following war.

Danny Miran, 80, whose son, Miran Miran was hostage in Gaza, said he was planning a simple car with his family and trying to reassure his granddaughters that their father would return to the house.

Omri Miran, 48, was taken by Palestinian gunmen on October 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Israeli border with Gaza. he; His wife, Lesi; And their two daughters, Ronnie and a pain, It was initially detained under the threat of weaponsAccording to family members, but only had to Gaza.

Mr. Miran said: “My age was on the tunnels for more than a year and a half.” “I do not know what his mental state is. I can only hope that it will be strong enough to bear this tragedy.”