Families of hostages ask world leaders to join the US in urging Hamas to free their loved ones

(26 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel - 25 April 2024
1. Pan of hostage's relatives standing and holding flags from different countries
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2. SOUNDBITE (English) Nadav Tamir, member of the Hostages Families Forum:
"The hostages case is an international humanitarian crisis with 133 innocent people from 23 different countries held captive, enduring physical and emotional torture, often lacking medical aid, air, light, food and clean water."
3. Tilt up from pictures of the Bibas family (a couple kidnapped together with their two children) to Yossi Schneider, cousin of Shiri Bibas
4. Woman holding a U.S. flag
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) Yossi Schneider, cousin of hostage Argentinian-Israeli Shiri Bibas (kidnapped with her two kids and her husband):
"This is the time, not just to make statements, it's time not just to say words, it's time to make actions and to understand that we are dealing with a radical terror organization that only wants to destroy us and it's time for the world to wake up and do everything in its power to bring those people back."
6. Pan of hostage's relatives holding flags and pictures of their loved ones
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7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ruby Chen, father of Itay Chen, killed on Oct. 7:
"And I'd like to thank all that were involved from the White House in getting their leadership, in getting all the countries behind the statement, which is very important to us to keep everyone's focus on the fact that we have 133 hostages that in 202 days have not received any type of medical attention, any type of visitation, no understanding if we have hostages, if they are alive or dead for such a long period of time."
STORYLINE:
Families of some of the 133 hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, gathered in Tel Aviv on Thursday to thank the leaders of 18 nations for their joint statement demanding the immediate release of their loved ones.

Carrying flags, the relatives of Americans, German, French, British, Argentinians, Canadians and others, insisted that the hostage case become an "international humanitarian crisis," involving people from 23 different countries and urged other world leaders to join the call for the release of all them.

But the families also said it's time to pass from the words to the actions.

"This is the time, not just to make statements, this time is not just to say words, it's time to make (take) actions," said Yossi Schneider, cousin of hostage Shiri Bibas who was kidnapped together with her two kids and her husband.

Earlier Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders issued the joint statement calling for Hamas to release hostages held in Gaza, the latest attempt at public pressure to advance negotiations over a potential cease-fire with Israel.

The statement was issued by Biden and the leaders of 17 other countries, all of which have citizens who are missing or were taken hostage during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

The other countries are Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

The Israel-Hamas war was ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and another 250 abducted. Some released during a week ceasefire on November.

The war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.


The war has devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left a swath of destruction.





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