On the 100th day of the war, Israelis pray, dance, and sing for the hostages in Gaza
Hundreds of Israelis participated in activities on a chilly and wet Sunday in Tel Aviv to commemorate one hundred days since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, starting a retaliatory campaign that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The focus of the gathering was the captives abducted on October 7 by Hamas militants; 132 of them are still in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities, while 25 are believed to have died.
Among the throng in Tel Aviv was Amit Zach, a graphic designer. “One hundred days and they are still abandoned there, 100 days and there is no sign of their return,” Zach said.
Families of the hostages have led the effort to free their loved ones, keeping their predicament at the forefront of national discourse.
It is one of the war goals in Gaza, according to Israeli lawmakers, along with eliminating Hamas and making sure such an incident never occurs again.
However, not everyone in Tel Aviv was impressed.
Gili Dvash Yeshurun said, “I don’t think we imagined a situation where we would be here on the 100th day.”
She said that the “concept of security” between the people and the government had vanished.
An AFP count based on official numbers indicates that 1,140 people died in Israel as a consequence of the Hamas assault, the majority of them were civilians.
In addition, the militants kidnapped some 250 individuals from trance music festivals and southern Israeli villages; however, in late November, scores of these individuals were released in exchange for Palestinian captives.
“In basements and tunnels”
Since then, Israel has attacked Gaza from the air, sea, and land, killing at least 23,968 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the region controlled by Hamas.
Tel Aviv hosted music events all day long that attracted large crowds who linked arms, danced, and yelled, often while covered by umbrellas.
In honor of those victims, trance DJ Artifex performed in front of hundreds of people early on Sunday. Artifex had performed at the rave party where, according to official numbers, dozens of people were kidnapped and 364 slain.
Men with prayer shawls and skullcaps stood in the rain reading passages from the Bible.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed the assembly later that day, emphasizing that the hostage situation must not be put off “until the very last hostage is freed.”
“I commit to continue acting to ensure this, in every way and with every tool at my disposal,” added the president.
On the day of the events, a large number of amateur cyclists gathered in Tel Aviv’s velodrome to do laps as the names and images of the hostages appeared on enormous screens.
“Government is not what we are. We are not the armed forces. As she was ready to leave, 72-year-old yoga instructor Alisa Duron told AFP, “The only thing we can do is tell the world the tragedy these people are living.”
“We as a country need to be strong together.”
To commemorate the 100th day of captivity, hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide stopped working at noon for a 100-minute stoppage, according to Israel’s trade union organization, Histadrut.
“I kept hoping for a miracle to happen so we wouldn’t have to stand here today,” Histadrut head Arnon Bar-David said during a Tel Aviv protest.
However, he proceeded to state that it was imperative to “remind the whole world” that the hostages were still being kept “in Gaza, in tunnels, in basements”.
Families of hostages revealed a mannequin of the Gaza tunnels where their loved ones are allegedly being kept on Saturday.
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art has a replica of a Hamas tunnel set up outdoors, complete with a poorly lighted tunnel, dirt flooring, and a steady soundtrack of gunshots and shelling.
But late on Sunday, a representative for the armed wing of Hamas said in a televised speech that “most likely, many of them were killed recently” and that it was unclear what had become of many of the captives.
