Ex- hostages: ‘Stop Gaza raids. Endless war is killing hostages’

In a dramatic open letter, more than 40 Israelis kidnapped on 7 October 2023 and returned home from the tunnels of the Strip warn Prime Minister Netanyahu, who wanted the resumption of hostilities against Hamas: ‘Return immediately to negotiations for an agreement that will end the war. Otherwise the blood of our comrades will be on your hands’.

This letter was written with blood and tears. We wrote it with our friends, the families whose loved ones were killed and murdered in captivity, and they cry out: "Stop the fighting, return to the negotiating table and sign an agreement that returns all the kidnapped, even if it means ending the war. Military pressure puts them at risk and there is nothing more urgent than the return of all the kidnapped."

We all support it: those who have returned from captivity and gone through the horrors, the families of the kidnapped who are still in Gaza and are terrified, those who have embraced their loved ones and those who had to bury them, knowing that they could have been saved.

Let us all say together: military pressure kills hostages alive and claims victims.

This is not a slogan, this is reality. 41 kidnapped have already paid with their lives, we, their family members, have paid. They could have returned to the embrace and rehabilitation, but they will not return.

The Israeli government is choosing an endless war over the rescue and return of the kidnapped and therefore sacrifices them to their death

This is a criminal policy: you do not have the mandate to sacrifice 59 hostages.

We, the families who reluctantly and against our will paid the highest price of all, raise a red flag and warn: the return to fighting will cost the lives of more kidnapped and increase the risk of more Ron Arads (the reference is to an Israeli air force pilot captured in Lebanon in the 1980s who died in captivity - ed.). The circle of mourning will widen and in vain.

We must stop the fighting and immediately return to the negotiating table to reach a global agreement for the return of all the kidnapped in exchange for ending the war and finding a solution for the next day.

If you do not, the blood of the next kidnapped and the fate of all the kidnapped will be imprinted on your hands.

Gadi Mozes, Keith Siegel, Ofer Calderon, Eliya Cohen, Liri Elbag, Sagi Dekel-Chen, Agam Berger, Karina Ariev, Ohad Ben Ami, Raz Ben Ami, Arbel Yehud, Ada Sagi, Shani Goren, Nili Margalit, Gabriela Leimberg, Yaffa Adar, Ditza Heiman, Ofir Engel, Amit Soussana, Keren Munder, Ruti Munder, Liam Or, Adina Moshe, Hannah Perry, Raaya Rotem, Liat Beinin Atzili, Noga Weiss, Shiri Weiss, Margalit Mozes, Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, Sharon Alony Cunio, Danielle Aloni, Ilana Gritzewsky, Karina Engelbert, Noralin Babadilla, Meirav Tal, Jimmy Pacheco, Amit Shani, Agam Goldstein, Sahar Calderon, Erez Calderon, Shoshan Haran, Fernando Marman, Ophelia Roitman, Clara Marman and Raz Ben Ami.