Kiddush at the Hatofim square, February 23, 2024/Hatofim families headquarters
Cautious optimism alongside mistrust is reflected among the abductees' families following the Cabinet's decision to send an Israeli delegation to Qatar to discuss another abductee deal.
"I have no feelings, I need to see my son, and not such meetings in Paris, Cairo or Qatar," says Danny Mirren, the father of the kidnapped Amri Mirren.
"All these voices only give hope and disappointment, so I stopped being disappointed because I don't give hope, and if it turns out differently then it will be a pleasant surprise."
"You don't want to develop expectations, but you hope with all your heart that it will really be you this time," shares her feelings, the daughter of the kidnapped Ron Benjamin, Shai Benjamin.
"We are talking about a deal for 30 people," she explains, "I don't know if my father is part of the categories, if he will come out or not? You can't know anything until the last minute. It sucks because we, the families, would like everyone to come out and I'm not ready To even think about people who will stay there after this deal.
"We don't want to develop expectations."
Rally for the kidnapped, this month/official website, Uri Sela
"If 30 people are released, it means that everyone else will have another 6 weeks to wait, and only then will they see when they will be released. This means that they will be there for at least 200 days and it is impossible to be there that long. So it is very stressful."
Benjamin continues, "I want them to consider the fact that everyone needs to be taken out, to make one deal in which everyone will be released, even if it's in beats. At least that's how we'll know it will happen. Between the first deal and talks about a second one, it took almost 70 days, so I don't want them to take another 70 plus days for another deal."
She emphasizes that as part of the deal, the dead must also be returned: "The bodies must return to Israel for burial."
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Demonstration of families of abductees near the Kariya, in November/Niv Aharonson
"Netanyahu should decide that history should remember him as the one who chose to return the abductees," says Yifat Kalderon, a cousin of the abductee Ofer Kalderon.
"Right now the abductees are paying a political price and I want to believe that Bibi will really want to be remembered as the one who returned the abductees, and did not choose the extremists and sentenced the abductees, including Ofer Shali, because that is a death sentence in the captivity of Hamas."
Calderon expresses concern if a deal is not closed within a week: "None of us knows what will happen. Most of the time I am optimistic, because I am a human being who is optimistic by nature, but there are setbacks. We have been in this war for their return for four and a half months. I am fighting for It's every day and I have a regular shift on Begin Road at the entrance to the Kiriya base."
She adds, "We need to wake up the people here, who have been dormant since October 7. This is a war for all of us and not just for the families of the abductees."
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