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Hostage families hold counterprotest backing continuation of war on Hamas

The Tikva Forum was joined by bereaved families and evacuees telling the government that war can end only with destruction of both Hamas and Hezbollah.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A group of hostage families demonstrated Sunday in Jerusalem together with bereaved families and evacuees in favor of continued military pressure on both Hamas and Hezbollah to ensure Israel’s long-term security and gain the hostages’ freedom.

Some 200 protestors gathered near the government offices as the Cabinet met for its weekly meeting with a simple message that “Only a decisive military operation will lead to the defeat of Hamas and Hezbollah, and will allow the release of the abductees.”

Itzik Buntzel, whose son Amit was killed in fighting in Shejaiya declared, “At this time of the government meeting, we are calling on all government ministers and especially the prime minister to continue [the fight]. We will only win with strength and power.”

Referring to the few hundred Hamas fighter that IDF forces have killed over the past few weeks in Gaza, and the attempted assassination Saturday of Hamas No. 2 Muhammad Deif, he added, “Continue the eliminations, kill them one by one, both in the north and in the south, don’t stop.”

Matan Jerafi, director of field operations for the Im Tirtzu movement said, “This is the time to intensify the [military] activity, complete the mission in the Gaza Strip and eliminate the organization’s senior leadership.”

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Several ministers came out to support the message, including Amichai Shikli, Idit Silman, Orit Strook and Ofir Sofer.

The demonstrators represented the entire nation, Silman stated, and “is fighting for what is right, together with us. We are all one nation, fighting to destroy our enemies on all our borders, and bring our hostages home.”

Members of the group “Fighting for the North” demanded that the government begin to deal seriously with the threat from Hezbollah, which since the war began has launched some 6,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and UAV’s at Israeli villages and IDF military sites alike, killing over two dozen civilians and soldiers and causing massive destruction in the northern part of the country.

Rita Ben Yair of the northern border town of Shlomi told Israel National News that after nine months of being out of their homes, with whole families “in one room” in hotels, the 60,000 evacuated residents “will not allow a return to the north with a deal made” with Hezbollah.

”It won’t happen, we’ll be here every day,” she said.

She demanded military action to dismantle the Iranian proxy terror group, saying that deals like UN Resolution 1701 that ended the Second Lebanon War by requiring the Lebanese terror proxy to retreat beyond the Litani River “didn’t work.”

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The resolution was never enforced, and the 10,500 UN soldiers on the Lebanese-Israel border whose official mission is to keep the peace, has not stopped Hezbollah even once from firing upon Israel in contravention to international law.

“We will not go like lambs to the slaughter. The seventh of October will not happen in the north,” Ben Yair said.

The rally led by the Tikva Forum showed once again that not all those with loved ones being held captive by Hamas agreed with the position that a hostage deal must take priority over the necessity of destroying the terrorist threat to the country that has been exposed by the ongoing war.

Thousands of Israelis had joined other families of hostages to demonstrate Saturday night in Jerusalem and other parts of the country, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not “torpedo” the hostage negotiations that have been taking place indirectly with the aid of Egyptian, Qatari, and American officials.