Israel – The Jerusalem Post, August 29, 2024
Family members of hostages held by Hamas ran toward the Gaza border Thursday morning, insisting that if Israel’s government was not going to bring the hostages home, they would.
The families were part of a group that had come to the Gaza border area to speak to their loved ones using huge loudspeakers.
“What do we have left other than just running out there ourselves to get them?” Gil Dickmann told The Jerusalem Post.
“We understood that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu just gave up on the hostages and doesn’t want a deal,” he said. “He keeps on making different excuses for not signing a deal.”
Dickmann’s cousin Carmel Gat has been held in Hamas captivity since October 7.
Another family member, with his voice breaking as he walked toward the border, said: “We will show the prime minister how to bring them [back]. If he doesn’t know how, we will do it and show him.”
They were quickly stopped by security forces, who sent them back to the original site of the gathering.
‘No more excuses from Netanyahu’
“They stopped us because there were bombings in the area, and we didn’t want to risk the lives of other people, but we’re not going to give up,” Dickmann said, adding that the families would be back, joined by more people.
“We’re still days away from achieving a deal,” he said. “We don’t need any more excuses from Netanyahu. We just need him to sign the damn deal and get the hostages home.”
