Second anniversary of October 7th, waiting for the nightmare to end

Special Envoy to JerusalemOn the still-packed Tel Aviv beach, the yellow flags symbolizing the demand for the return of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza are frayed. On the signs with their photographs and names, someone has twice corrected the captives' ages with a marker: they have spent two birthdays in Gaza.

"Israeli ministers stand in front of cameras and tell stories, but we are the ones living this nightmare. They are not protecting us or our children. They have abandoned us. Every day more soldiers die in Gaza in this long war, and the hostages remain in mortal danger." Nimrod, who was kidnapped on the Gaza border 731 days ago.

A few days later of the Palestinian attacks, the families of the 251 Israeli hostages realized that the State of Israel was incapable of handling the situation and decided to organize to secure the release of their loved ones. They hired a team of video analysis experts to scour the images posted on social media and find clues. Another team was made up of people with diplomatic contacts everywhere, and a third dedicated to pressuring their government to ensure that the hostages were not erased from Benjamin Netanyahu's calculations. They put together a budget to work for six months, thinking that this timeframe was more than exaggerated. None could have imagined that their nightmare would last so long.

In Jerusalem, the families of the hostages have erected a monument in front of the Prime Minister's residence. sukkat, the tent where according to Jewish tradition, during the week of Sukkot, which celebrates joy, families gather to eat, dance and sing. In this sukkatHowever, there is no celebration. They do not even allow themselves hope in the plan presented by Donald Trump"The government has told us so many times that liberation was imminent that we no longer dare to have hopes," says Eli, who came to express his solidarity with the families.

Two years later, there are still many unanswered questions. The most important: Why didn't Israel prevent this attack, which left 1,139 dead? The only person who trusted that it could save itself from taking responsibility for the greatest security breach in the history of Israel, a country steeped in technological arrogance, was the prime minister. His revenge in the form of genocide in Gaza led the International Criminal Court to order his arrest as a war criminal.

And Netanyahu has pulled through. He has attacked Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Qatar, selling the world and its public the false idea that Israel is a country under threat. And when he had been made a peer by a UN General Assembly that ignored him, in a single maneuver, he turned the situation inside out. He agreed with Donald Trump on a plan that represents an unconditional surrender of the Palestinians, which has been joined by Europe and the Arab countries.

The second question is even more difficult to answer. How is it that after two years of raiding and starving Gaza, and with the active support of the world's best intelligence services—the United States and the United Kingdom—Israel has not been able to find the hostages? The 48 remaining hostages in Gaza—20 of whom are presumed dead—were left out of the last exchange agreed upon with Hamas in March, when Netanyahu unilaterally decided to break the ceasefire. How the Palestinian factions have been able to retain them and, in most cases, keep them alive in the midst of genocide, will have to be explained by military manuals of urban warfare.

The Gaza genocide continues

Trump said Israel would halt the bombing for the negotiations that began Monday in Egypt, but it hasn't: since Friday, Israel has killed 104 people in Gaza, bringing the incomplete official death toll to 67,173. From central Gaza, Samir Zaqout, a lawyer, explains by phone that he doesn't allow himself any hope either: "Netanyahu hasn't given up on his goal of removing the Palestinians from Palestine." "In the negotiations in Egypt, Israel is only seeking to free the hostages to resolve its internal problems, and then return to war. I don't know if the United States will allow it, but we can't trust either Trump or Netanyahu, who are fanatics and the last thing they care about is the people," he says.

Zaqout, however, believes that Israel has suffered a strategic defeat. "They have spent 80 years convincing the world that Palestinians are terrorists and Israelis are a civilized and democratic country. They have lost the narrative battle, and I don't think anyone with an ounce of conscience can defend it. And if they stop the genocide, their internal crisis—political, social, and economic—will intensify."

Meanwhile, negotiations continue in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh, and US representatives will join them on Wednesday. Hamas today demanded guarantees that the Israeli troop withdrawal will be complete at the same time as the hostages are released. Netanyahu wants to remain "inside" the Strip. And since Trump's plan leaves everything in a calculated ambiguity, no one is allowing themselves hope.