North of Tel Aviv, on Saturday afternoon, October 19, members of the Hostage Families Forum no longer have much hope. Since the announcement of Yahya Sinouar’s death two days earlier, hopes that the disappearance of the Hamas leader would lead to a reduction in the intensity of the ongoing conflicts in Gaza, but also, by extension, in Lebanon, have been dashed. severely weakened. Like every week at the end of Shabbat, demonstrations are planned throughout the country. These are the first since the death of Yahya Sinouar and will take place despite the fact that his disappearance has given no visible sign that an agreement between Israel and Hamas, including an exchange between hostages and Palestinian prisoners, has the slightest chance of happening. be concluded. . The protesters gathered here in Tzahala, northeast of Tel Aviv, know that the days of the captives in Gaza are numbered. The war led by the Israeli army continues in the enclave. Just as attacks against Hezbollah continue in Lebanon.
Until a few weeks ago, protesters were convinced that the entire country would join in their anger and that, soon, a million people would be in the streets. It was an illusion. From now on, it is impossible not to see that their ranks are shrinking, that their voice sounds less than ever. Today, in Tzahala, only about fifty remain, in front of the residence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The mobilizations, even the most spectacular, have never been massive enough during the past year to “embody” a country at odds with its government. They have never deviated even one iota from their way of waging war. Since the death of Yahya Sinouar, the Israeli military has steadfastly continued its operations in northern Gaza and carried out devastating attacks there.
In Tzahala, in the middle of the elegant houses, Yehusa Cohen, the hostage’s father,’s voice shakes a little as he tries to say what he fears for his son, Nimrod, who turned twenty in Gaza. The latter, a soldier, had joined a unit at the Nahal Oz base on the outskirts of Gaza as part of his military service shortly before 7 October. He was captured there when Hamas took control of the area.
Some staunch hostage families demonstrate
With his gray hair tied up in a ponytail, which gives him the air of a “pacifist” of those who enrage supporters of war at any price, this computer engineer, a specialist in algorithms, still tries to appear indignant, overwhelmed by the terror of never seeing her son alive again: “After Sinouar’s death, we fear that there will be an every man for himself in Hamas and that the hostages will be liquidated. We pray for an agreement to be reached, we ask for it with all our might, we shout for it. And then, [le premier ministre Benyamin] Netanyahu won, right? I could stop the war now. Otherwise, continuing to fight is entirely your responsibility. He can no longer say that it is Sinouar who is blocking the peace negotiations. try to reason.
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