The day after the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced the implementation of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, which resulted in the capture of more than 200 Israelis, the families of Israeli detainees held by the resistance began their pressure activities to liberate them.
On October 8, the “Forum for Families of Abductees and Missing Persons” held the first press conference to open a channel of communication with the Israeli government and demand that it liberate the prisoners.
The conference included a demand and appeal to countries in the region, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, to contribute to the pressure to liberate the prisoners in the Gaza Strip. Since then, the protests began to expand and affect many segments of Israeli society.
The first actual activity of the Families Forum on the ground was on October 20, and hundreds of people, including famous Jewish religious and artistic figures, participated in the first demonstration calling for the liberation of prisoners, which was organized in the courtyard of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which the families changed its name to “Family Square.” kidnapped and missing persons,” and a sit-in tent was set up where dozens flocked.
On October 24, a delegation from the “Forum for Families of Abductees and Missing Persons” attended the UN Security Council session on the war, and the father of one of the detainees, a member of the forum, spoke before members of the Security Council and the United Nations, demanding the liberation of their children. This coincided with demonstrations in support of the families of the Israeli prisoners. Organized by Jewish activists in the United States.
Trade deal now
Four weeks after the start of the war, and with an increase in solidarity and participants in the demonstrations, the Forum organized two demonstrations on November 4 and 11, in which tens of thousands participated, demanding that the Israeli government make a prisoner exchange deal that would guarantee the return of their sons alive. The demonstrations attracted a number of celebrities, artists, and politicians, led by them. Former head of state Reuven Rivlin.
On the 14th of the same month, the Families Forum organized a walking demonstration in which tens of thousands participated. It lasted for 5 days, starting in the courtyard of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and ending at the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
A delegation from the Families Forum also met with the Ministerial War Council more than once to discuss the possibility of conducting an exchange deal, after the spread of audio leaks of Netanyahu from a previous session in which he said that eliminating Hamas was more important than liberating detainees.
The researcher on Israeli affairs, Ihab Jabareen, attributed the reasons for the increase in numbers participating in the protests from dozens at the beginning of the war to tens of thousands weeks later, to the decrease in the rate of retaliatory atmosphere that Israeli society was experiencing at the beginning of the days of the war.
Jabareen continued in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net that after a period of time from the beginning of the war, voices from within the opposition began to rise, speaking about the importance of participating in these protests, especially since they felt that Netanyahu was exploiting this war and trying to prolong it to protect himself.
Psychological
The pace and intensity of the demonstrations escalated, with every time the resistance published pictures and scenes of Israeli prisoners demanding their return to their homes and an immediate exchange deal, and with its liberation of “foreign” prisoners without compensation, as the families of the prisoners saw that there was a political solution that would guarantee the safety of their children, other than the official Israeli solution. Which aims to return the prisoners by force of war, and which has so far failed to free the detainees alive.
A report published on the Israeli Broadcasting Authority spoke of the harsh psychological warfare carried out by Hamas by publishing these scenes, and the increasing amount of pressure it is exercising on the families of the prisoners and the Israeli government, which is causing the demonstrations to expand and the number of participants to increase.
On December 8, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the killing of an Israeli prisoner, during clashes with Israeli special forces that tried to free him after disguising him as an ambulance, in addition to the killing of dozens of prisoners during the Israeli bombing.
On the 14th of the same month, the occupation army announced that 3 prisoners had been killed by gunfire from its forces as they tried to escape from the resistance prisons.
This prompted the Israeli political analyst, Yossi Melman, to say that “the Israeli prisoners will return as corpses if our government does not initiate a ceasefire and exchange of prisoners,” while Israeli army spokesmen indicated in their speeches more than once that Hamas is practicing a harsh and difficult psychological war when… Broadcast to scenes of detainees.
The videos published by the Al-Qassam Brigades were a shock to the families of the prisoners and to Israeli society. For example, following the killing of the three by Israeli army gunfire, thousands went out to demonstrate in the late hours of the same day, in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Security in Tel Aviv to stop the war.
The families of the prisoners also escalated their protests by attending Knesset sessions and chanting “Deal Now,” most recently on the night of December 25, coinciding with Netanyahu’s speech that emphasized the continuation of the fighting.
To mitigate these reactions, the Israeli Army Home Front Command was quick to warn the media and social media users against circulating these scenes and the fighting scenes broadcast by the “military media” of the Hamas movement.
The extent of the impact
The question remains about the extent of families’ influence on the decision to stop the war. This continued internal pressure contributed to the Israeli government yielding to the demands of the factions in Gaza last November and accepting a temporary humanitarian truce to conduct a partial prisoner exchange deal.
This deal aroused the ire of the right-wing masses, who had stood against its cessation from the beginning of the war, and always supported its continuation to eliminate Hamas, regardless of the difficulty of the fighting and the prices paid. This difference caused a tense and charged atmosphere and attacks in several cities, in which right-wing supporters clashed with demonstrators demanding a cessation of the war. And make an exchange transaction.
More than that, a charged atmosphere and verbal quarrels prevailed within the Israeli Knesset on November 20, during a session in which Knesset members discussed the proposed “Execution of Palestinian Prisoners” law, attended by a delegation of prisoners’ families, who opposed the proposed resolution and protested against it.
In the context of the impact of the protests on the Israeli decision, Sherine Younis, a researcher on Israeli affairs, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that “the protests inside Israel have a limited impact, due to the combination of the right-wing government, and the state of division that existed before the war, and while families from the right-wing crowd are attacked; Netanyahu is trying Raising the voice of the families of the dead soldiers who support the continuation of the fighting, in an attempt to delegitimize the families of the kidnapped.”
For his part, the researcher on Israeli affairs, Wadih Awawda, said in his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net: “There is a clear influence on the families of the detainees, especially after it became clear that the ground incursion would not bring them back alive.” He also pointed out that “the pressure of the families will be more effective and influential, and that public opinion affects On the position of governments and even their decision to stop the war.”
Awawda added that the Israeli government feels embarrassed in front of the families of the detainees and the world, because after all this American and European support, it was unable to liberate its prisoners by force.
Street opinion
In the context of the extent of the Israeli street’s acceptance of a prisoner exchange deal, a poll conducted by the Direct Falls Center and the Israeli Channel 14 showed that 52% of Israelis supported the exchange deal that took place last November, and that 76% of opposition party supporters supported the deal. While 30% of the supporters of the current right-wing government supported the deal.
The Forum for Families of Abductees and Missing Persons continues to stand before Netanyahu, who wants to prolong the war for as long as possible, perhaps he can save his neck from trial, and before the right-wing crowd and its leaders who are leading a war of genocide against Gaza.
However, it seems that the occupation has no choice but to yield to the demands of the resistance to go to a comprehensive deal that will empty the Israeli prisons of Palestinian prisoners, with a complete ceasefire.
Awawdeh suggested that there would be no solution except towards a comprehensive deal, even if Israel was able to assassinate leaders in Hamas, as it is in a difficult and confusing situation. What Hamas endured, no other country could bear, and the Israelis will feel a feeling similar to what happened to them at the end of the Second Lebanon War. It is ” A feeling of bitterness.”