Families urge Israel PM to 'stop the killing' of Gaza hostages

The families of Israeli captives in Gaza demanded Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “stop the killing and disappearance of the hostages” after Israel launched its deadliest strikes on the territory since a January ceasefire.

“The families of the hostages demand a meeting this morning with the prime minister, the defence minister and the head of the negotiation team, in which they will be assured how the hostages will be protected from the military pressure and how they intend to bring them back,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

“The families of the hostages will demand: Stop the killing and disappearance of the hostages now! First, return them –- then everything else.”

The captives’ families called for a protest outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem later on Tuesday.

Israel vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until the return of all hostages as it unleashed its most intense strikes since the ceasefire began on January 19.

“Families of hostages have been pleading for meetings with public officials responsible for the fate of their loved ones. Their pleas have gone unanswered,” the families said in a statement.

“Now it becomes clear -– the public officials did not meet with them because they were planning the explosion of the ceasefire, which could sacrifice their family members.”

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 2023 attack which sparked the Israel’s war on Gaza, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.