Hostages still held in Gaza cast shadow over Passover in Israel

JERUSALEM — When Yona Schnitzer, a marketing writer from Tel Aviv, Israel, attended the traditional Passover Seder meal last year, he said a special prayer for the return of all the hostages still being held by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

He had thought their freedom would be secured by Passover 2025, but that did not happen.

“It’s become so normalized that there are hostages in Gaza,” said Schnitzer, 36. “It’s surreal and heartbreaking.”

On Saturday evening, Israelis observed the beginning of Passover, the weeklong Jewish festival of freedom, for the second time since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war in Gaza. The holiday is usually a celebration of the biblical story of the ancient Israelites being liberated from slavery in Egypt, with families gathering to retell that story, sing songs and eat special foods.

But for many Israelis, the continuing captivity of the hostages has made it difficult to feel the joy of the holiday.

“We will mark the holiday. We won’t celebrate it,” said Orly Gavishi-Sotto, 47, a college administrator from northern Israel. “We can only celebrate when all the hostages are home.”

The Israeli government has said it believes 24 of the 59 remaining hostages are still alive.

On Saturday evening, as Israelis gathered with their families to mark Passover, Hamas released a new video showing one of those hostages, Idan Alexander. In a statement distributed by a hostage advocacy group, Alexander’s family asked the news media not to circulate the footage.

In January, Israeli and Hamas negotiators agreed to a ceasefire that was supposed to lead to freedom for the rest of the hostages. Thirty living hostages and the bodies of eight others were returned during the initial six weeks of the agreement, but Israel resumed attacks on Gaza on March 18 after the two sides failed to agree on an extension of the truce.

Advocates for the hostages worry that this latest offensive is endangering the captives. More than three dozen have been killed in captivity since the start of the war, both by their captors and by Israeli fire, according to Israeli officials, forensic reports and military investigations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said the war will not end until Hamas’ military wing and Gaza government are dismantled. Hamas has said it will not free all of the hostages unless Israel ends the war permanently.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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