We call on our government to act now to bring the hostages home. Alive, healthy, and whole. It’s possible. Our government cannot give up on the hostages. Our government cannot run from their responsibility to these people. 200 hostages in Gaza. It’s possible, it’s necessary, it’s a must that we make every effort to free them.

Around 200 men, women, and children were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip at the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Every one of these hostages is a whole world, a world unto themselves. And they are all part of families and communities – parents, siblings, partners, children, friends. 200 worlds. It’s forbidden for us to give up on them.

We can save Avinatan, Andrey, Segev, Almog, Ofek, Eitan, Tamar, Eden, Avigail, Rom, Vivian, Moran – we can save them and so many others. We can bring back peace of heart to so many parents, siblings, families, and friends. We can release them and we must release them. They’re trusting us.

At the moment, we know almost nothing about their status, mainly because Hamas is preventing anyone from seeing them – including the Red Cross. Parents are panicking for their children who may not have their inhalers, children worried for their parents who don’t have their medicines, people on tenterhooks waiting for news on their loved one’s lives. They know that the mass-scale bombings in Gaza affect the hostages, too.

We are calling on the government of Israel, on US President Joe Biden, on the countries of the world and our Palestinian counterparts – to anyone who wants to advance a political solution and work to end the occupation and the conflict – to take action to secure the peace, safety, and return of the hostages.

Resistance to occupation doesn’t justify harming innocent civilians, just as Israel cannot justify harming civilians in Gaza. It’s our responsibility to oppose acts that hurt Israeli civilians, just as we oppose acts that hurt Palestinian civilians. Sooner or later, some sort of deal will come. But time is not on our side. The time to bring them home is now. Free the hostages now.