When Yona Schnitzer, a Marketing writer from Tel Aviv, watched the traditional Easter meal last year, said a special prayer for the return of all hostages still held by Palestinian fighters in Gaza.
He had thought that their freedom would be secured by Easter 2025, but that didn’t happen.
“It is so normal that there are hostages in Gaza,” said Schnitzer, 36.
On Saturday night, the Israelis will notice the beginning of Easter, the weekly Jewish Freedom Festival, for the second time on October 7 of Hamas on October 7, 2023, an attack that triggered the war in Gaza. Holidays are usually a celebration of the biblical history of ancient Israelites released from slavery to Egypt, with families gathering to repeat this story, singing songs and eating special food.
But for many Israelis, the continued captivity of the hostages found it difficult to feel the joy of the holiday.
“We will mark the holidays, we will not celebrate it,” said Orly Gavishi-Sotto, 47, a college manager from northern Israel. “We can only celebrate when all hostages are home.”
Ms. Gavishi-Sotto said her family would put a empty chair on the Seder table, symbolizing hostages in Gaza that cannot be with their families.
The Israeli government said it believed that 24 of the 59 hostages are still alive.
In January, the negotiators of Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire that had to lead to the freedom of the rest of the hostages. Thirty hostages and the bodies of eight others were returned during the initial six weeks of the agreement, but Israel reiterated the attacks on Gaza on March 18, after the two sides failed to agree on the expansion of the truce.
The Israeli army has begun with a major bombing campaign and occupied more territory in Gaza in what officials said was an attempt to force Hamas to release more hostages.
But supporters for hostages are worried that this latter attack is jeopardizing the captives. More than three dozen have been killed in captivity since the start of the war, both by their conquerors and by the 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 next war.
Dani Miran, 80, whose son Omri Miran is hostage to Gaza, said he was planning a simple seder with his family and trying to reassure his grandchildren that their father would come home.
Omri Miran, now 48, was taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023, by Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Israeli border with Gaza. He; His wife, Lishay. Both of their daughters, Roni and Alma, were initially detained with a gun, according to family members, but only forced Gaza.
“Omri was in the tunnels for over a year and a half,” Mr Miran said. “I don’t know what his mental state is. I can only hope he is strong enough to endure this tragedy.”
