Newsman: ‘The Hostages Families Forum’ an Israeli group advocating for the release of hostages in Gaza is joining border communities in boycotting a government-organized Oct. 7 memorial to mark the one-year anniversary of the brutal Hamas-led attack on Israel.
The Times of Israel reported some of the communities would hold their own private ceremony instead.
“The Hostage Families Forum will join with border communities and towns on the Gaza border and south to mark the anniversary of the massacre, to demand the restoration of security, the return of the abductees, the restoration of the communities, and the investigation of the failures that led to the terrible disaster on October 7, 2023,” the group said in a statement released Wednesday, as translated by the Times of Israel.
The Hostages Families Forum criticized the “resounding failure’’ of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to free the 109 captives still held in Gaza. Several kibbutzim have recently rejecting the state plan for a commemoration.
Repeated attempts at a truce in the 10-month-long war in Gaza have failed to produce a deal beyond the weeklong cease-fire and exchange of captives brokered in November.