Israeli hostage families to boycott October 7 memorial as ceasefire talks drag on

A group representing the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza plans to boycott the government’s commemoration of the first anniversary of the October 7 attack, frustrated by the slow progress in negotiations to bring back their loved ones.

“The Israeli government’s glaring inability to secure the hostages’ return makes any attempt to conclude this chapter impossible,” the Hostage Families Forum said in a statement on Wednesday. “Since October 7, the situation has remained stagnant.”

The government is scheduled to hold a formal memorial event on October 7, a year after Hamas’ attack on Israel. Transport Minister Miri Regev, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, has been appointed by the government to organize the memorial.

“A year has passed since citizens were abandoned in the greatest disaster in Israel’s history. One-hundred-and-nine hostages have yet to return, and the living have not been brought back for rehabilitation, nor have the bodies of the murdered been returned for burial,” the forum added.

The forum said it would instead join communities of the Gaza border area and southern Israel to mark October 7.

Monthslong talks to release the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza have repeatedly stalled as mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt ramp up efforts to reach an agreement. Israel insists that it won’t end the war until Hamas is eliminated from Gaza and has demanded that it retain control over the Gaza-Egypt border and restrict the movement of armed men from the south of the strip to its north. Hamas has rejected those demands.

There are currently 109 Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, including 36 believed to be dead, according to data from the Israeli government press office. This week, the bodies of six Israeli hostages were retrieved from tunnels in Gaza in an Israeli military operation in the city of Khan Younis.

Israel’s war in Gaza was launched after Hamas-led militants attacked the country on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. More than 40,200 people have died in Gaza during the war, according to Palestinian authorities.

Hostage families have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of stalling negotiations and abandoning the captives to keep his governing coalition intact. Hardline ministers in his cabinet have threatened to collapse the government if he agrees to end the war.

“Together, we’ll demand the restoration of security, the return of the hostages, the rehabilitation of communities, and an investigation into the failures that led to the terrible disaster of October 7,” the forum said.

The boycott announcement came after a number of kibbutzim (Israeli agricultural communes) from the Gaza border area announced they would not participate in the memorial. According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan, a CNN affiliate, many of those kibbutzim that were attacked on October 7, including Be’eri, Re’im, Nirim, Kfar Aza, Nahal Oz, Nir Oz, Yad Mordechai and Nir Yitzhak, will boycott the event.

Representatives of the towns of Ofakim and Sderot will participate, according to Kan.

Leader of Israel’s National Unity party and former war cabinet member Benny Gantz on Wednesday said that it should be the affected communities – and not Regev – organizing the event.

“The nature of this day must be determined by those who endured the inferno: the residents of the Western Negev settlements, the hostages and their families, the families of the fallen, and the wounded,” Gantz wrote on X.

Addressing Regev, Gantz added: “It is not too late to reconsider and do what is right. Transfer the responsibility for managing the ceremony to the Minister of Culture, establish a joint steering committee with the leaders of the Western Negev communities and the bereaved families, and truly listen to them.”