'Fight isn't over yet': Families of male Israeli hostages push for their release

While the homecoming of the 13 Israelis from captivity in Gaza has brought joy to families, relatives of male hostages who are still being held by Hamas pushed for their loved ones to be released saying “fight still isn’t over.” Under the hostage deal agreed upon by Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar, only Israeli women and children hostages will be released first. However, during a virtual press conference held Saturday, the family members of male Israeli hostages highlighted the plight of their loved ones who are still being held in Gaza. “We have a big struggle ahead of us, even though we did get some hope yesterday by the release of 13 people from our communities and 11 more people that are foreign citizens that would gain relief. The fight still isn’t over,” Nadav Rudaeff said. He added that the families “know nothing besides the fact that we know he was hurt" during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Meanwhile, Noam Peri whose 79-year-old father Chaim has been taken hostage said that his family had recently received a sign of life after hostages who were being released on Friday said that he is still alive. Chaim’s wife Channa was among the hostages who were released on day one of the truce. “It feels very urgent to let them all out. We don’t know how much time they’re going to be able to hold on there,” Noam Peri stressed.

Hamas was expected to release a second group of Israelis on Saturday as a planned four-day truce to allow an exchange of 50 hostages for Palestinian prisoners continued to hold in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Egyptian security sources said they had received the names of 14 Israeli women and children from Hamas and were waiting for more details on when the hostages would be handed over to Egyptian authorities.

With inputs from Reuters