When Jonaschnitzer, a marketing writer in Tel Aviv, attended the traditional Passover Cedamir last year, he gave a special prayer for the return of all hostages still held by Palestinian extremists in Gaza.
He thought their freedom would be secured by the Passover in 2025, but that didn’t happen.
“It’s so normalized that there’s hostages in Gaza,” Schnitzer (which is surreal and heartbreaking,” Schnitzer said.
On Saturday evening, Israelis observe the beginning of Passover, a week-long Jewish freedom festival since Hamas-led October 7, 2023. Holidays usually celebrate biblical stories about the ancient Israelites being freed from Egyptian slavery, with families gathering to tell the stories, sing songs and eat special foods.
However, for many Israelis, the continued prisoners of hostages made it difficult to feel the joy of a holiday.
“We mark the holiday. We don’t celebrate it,” said Orly Gavishi-Sotto, 47, a university administrator in northern Israel. “All hostages can only be celebrated when they are at home.”
Gavisi Sotto said her family would place an empty chair on the Cedar table, symbolizing the hostages in Gaza that she could not be with her family.
The Israeli government says it believes that of the 59 remaining hostages 24 are still alive.
In January, Israeli-Hamas negotiators agreed to a ceasefire that appears to lead to the freedom of the hostages. Thirty living hostages and eight other bodies were returned in the first six weeks of the contract, but Israel resumed its attack on Gaza on March 18 after both parties refused to agree to an extension of the armistice.
Israeli forces have since launched a massive bombing campaign, seizing more territory in Gaza.
However, hostage supporters are worried that this latest attack puts prisoners at risk. Israeli officials, forensic reports and military investigations show that both prisoners of war and Israeli fires have led to more than 30 people being taken prisoner since the start of the war.
The attack in October 2023 killed around 1,200 people, and tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed in the subsequent war.
Dani Milan, 80, whose son Omri Milan is a hostage in Gaza, said he plans a simple seder with his family and is trying to reassure his granddaughter that his father is coming home.
Omri Milan, now 48 years old, was taken to Palestinian extremists on October 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nahar Oz near the Israeli border. He; his wife, Richey. And their two daughters, Roni and Alma, were initially held at muzzle, according to their family, but he was forced to Gaza.
“Omri has been in the tunnel for over a year and a half,” Milan said. “I don’t know what his mental state is. I hope he is strong enough to endure this tragedy.”
