Families of hostages remember the 400 days of kidnapping in Gaza

MADRID 9 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Hundreds of people gathered this Saturday on Begin Street in Tel Aviv, in front of the headquarters of the Armed Forces, to remember the hostages kidnapped in the Gaza Strip when 400 days have passed since their abduction.

The relatives participated in an event in which banners with slogans such as “Why are they still in Gaza? 400 days” or “400 days. Netanyahu’s shame” could be seen, in reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. who this week dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, one of the main defenders of an agreement to facilitate the release of the hostages. “There is nothing more important. All the hostages must return!” the attendees chanted.

One of the regular speakers, actor Lior Ashkenazi, recalled that this date coincides with the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, one of the most serious episodes of the persecution against Jews in Germany and Austria during the Nazi regime.

The German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, also spoke, addressing the attendees in Hebrew to lament that for some Israeli politicians “the hostages are only one of the objectives of the war and evidently not the main one.” He also recalled that there are hostages with German citizenship. “They are Germans or relatives of Germans and we want them to return,” he stressed.

Events like this, called by the Forum of Families of Abducted and Disappeared Persons, do not usually involve political parties, but on this occasion the youth organization of the centrist party Yesh Atid was present.

Meanwhile, a block away, about 500 people have gathered in the Plaza de los Abductados in silence waiting for the start of the demonstration against Netanyahu that occurs every week after the gathering of families and to which many join. of those attending the first.