Hundreds gather in Central Park for one of biggest rallies yet to support Israeli hostages
Hundreds of people gathered in Manhattan's Central Park on Sunday to hold one of their biggest rallies yet calling for all of the remaining hostages in Gaza to be freed.
Former captive Ilana Gritzewsky, 31, who was released after 55 days in captivity, said Israel, the US and all involved in the negotiations must do whatever they can to carry on the cease-fire deal and bring home the remaining hostages, including her boyfriend, Matan Zangauker, after more than 506 days in captivity.
'I can not stop thinking about each of the kidnapped. Cannot stop thinking about my Matan, and until we bring them all home, nothing will stop,' she told the crowd.
Gritzewsky and the other speakers, who included survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack and family members of hostages, led the crowd with chants of 'Bring them home!' and 'You are not alone!'
The former captive recounted the horrors of the terror attack, when Hamas operatives barged into her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz in the early morning of Oct. 7, 2023, and kidnapped her and Matan.
'Within minutes, terror was upon us,' Gritzewsky recalled. 'Understand my body may have returned, but the deepest part with me is still there.
'The world does not understand the magnitude of this trauma, with the kidnapped clinging to our emotional torment,' she said.
Orna and Ronen Neutra, the parents of slain hostage and New York native Omer Neutra, thanked the Biden and Trump administrations for securing the cease-fire deal and called for the truce to continue until their son's remains can be returned home.
'We lost our hope to see Omer alive,' said one of his grieving parents, who are from Plainview, LI.
'But Omer deserves a dignified burial, and we deserve a place to mourn. Bring them home now,' the stricken kin added.
Omer is one of the at least 36 hostages believed to now be dead and whose bodies are set to be handed over during the final phase of the already strained ceasefire deal.
Negotiations over the second phase of the deal, which would see all remaining living hostages freed, is currently on pause after Israel halted its release of Palestinian prisoners over the weekend.
The Jewish state accused Hamas of violating the deal when it released the body of an unknown Gazan woman in place of Israeli mom Shiri Bibas on Thursday, with the slain mother's body returned by Friday night.
'These past weeks of this, especially these past few days, have been unbearable,' US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said at the rally, one of a slew that have been held at the park over the months to show support for the hostages.
'I will always stand up here, not only in hoping but fighting for a world where the hostages are brought home and where Oct. 7 can never be repeated,' Torres said to the crowd.
Jacob Lew, the US ambassador to Israel, said the negotiations must stress a future for Gaza where Hamas is no longer in charge and cannot pose a threat to the Jewish state.
'The people of Israel deserve security,' Lew said.
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