300 days of war and captivity: President Herzog urges world leaders to take action for release Israeli hostages

Hostage families and supporters rally across Israel in favor of deal with Hamas

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Thursday, Aug. 1 marks exactly 300 days since the terror organization Hamas invaded Israel, slaughtered 1,200 and kidnapped over 250 people on Oct. 7, 2023.

Today, 115 of them remain in captivity, with 74 estimated to be alive.

“For 300 days our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandparents, have been languishing in the dungeons of Hamas in Gaza. Each second of every minute of every hour of these 300 days is a crime against humanity. And each second that passes the need to bring them home becomes more and more urgent,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a statement.

“To all the leaders of the world who wish for peace in our region, I say clearly: help us bring our hostages home – all of them, young and old, men and women, Jews, Muslims and more. Help us bring them home now.”

Some world leaders acknowledged the 300-day-long plight of Israel’s hostages in public statements.

“Our thoughts are with the hostages held for 300 days by Hamas. France continues to work for their release,” French President Emmanuel Macron stated on 𝕏.

Germany’s ambassador in Israel, Steffen Seibert, wrote: “300 days. 115 human beings. Grandparents, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters – loved and missed by their families. There is no more important goal than to #BringThemHomeNow.”

300 days. 115 human beings. Grandparents, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters - loved and missed by their families. There is no more important goal than to #BringThemHomeNow pic.twitter.com/4OAKqRY0FN
— Steffen Seibert (@GerAmbTLV) August 1, 2024

Amid the latest round of hostage release negotiations, which gained momentum about a month ago with high hopes following Hamas' apparent softening of demands, the fighting in Gaza has significantly decreased.

After several intense phases of fighting that saw Israeli troops reach nearly every area in the Gaza Strip, the IDF is currently stationed at the Philadelphi Corridor along the border with Egypt and the Netzarim Corridor, effectively cutting the enclave in half.

As of Thursday, the IDF has indicated active fighting was only continuing in the area of Rafah and the central Gaza Strip. In addition, the Israeli Air Force is still striking terror targets across the enclave, albeit at a reduced pace.

Meanwhile, hostage families fear the negotiations for a deal with Hamas may have reached another dead end after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran on Wednesday morning.

On Thursday morning, some hostage families blocked traffic on Ayalon Highway in central Tel Aviv, painting the number ‘300’ in large yellow letters and calling on the government to reach a deal.

A large-scale march and rally are planned in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, with smaller events to be held in dozens of locations around the country.

The central slogan of the Tel Aviv rally will reportedly be, “Enough! Deal or Abandonment.”

Yizhar, an Israeli man who was kidnapped and later released, expressed concern to Ynet News about the assassination of Haniyeh, for which Israel hasn’t officially taken responsibility. His parents, Oded and Yocheved Lifshitz, were also kidnapped on Oct. 7.

“I woke up this morning like every morning, these eliminations are already part of the policy, but somehow I thought we were in a very sensitive place in the negotiations, and the need to use up this opportunity here and now felt insensitive,” Yizhar said.

“Apparently there are parameters we don’t know. I want to believe that [Defense Minister] Gallant knows what he is doing.”

He added, “I feel there is numbness on the 300th day… Every day that passes makes me feel that more of the living hostages are dying. Even if there is a deal to be signed in a week, then it will take 45 days for the second stage. In the most optimistic scenario, we will already be after a whole year of war… in the meantime, as we continue operating in Gaza, we are killing live hostages.”

Of the approximately 250 hostages who were kidnapped, 109 were released. Of those, 105 were freed in a deal in November, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Seven live hostages were rescued in daring military operations, while the bodies of 24 kidnapped have been recovered from the Gaza Strip so far.