President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog hosted a special prayer vigil on Wednesday for the well-being of the 115 hostages held captive by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip for 313 days.
The prayer, which is based on the Prayer for the Welfare of the State, was formulated by Zvi Zussman, the father of Ben Zussman, who fell in battle in the Gaza Strip.
Sarit and Zvi Zussman joined in the meeting, together with Rachel and John Goldberg, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza, and the father of Binyamin Yehoshua “Benji” Needham, who fell in battle in the Gaza Strip.
At the beginning of the prayer, President Herzog addressed them and said: "I want to express my utmost gratitude if I could only bow to you and to all the bereaved families. As your sons went to battle, amongst their objectives was to bring back our hostages home. They fought for that cause. They lost their life for that cause. And I want to say to the entire world, that they are screaming to us from the bottom of the dungeons in Gaza, and they are going through terrible times, and we want to see them home as soon as possible. And we call upon the world and their leaders, wherever they are, our brothers and sisters are screaming out there. We want to see them all at home."
He added: "Tomorrow, there will be a renewed effort for negotiating a hostage deal, and I hope and pray that it will bear fruit. I have expressed my opinion that I will support any - any - deal that brings them back home, they need to get back home as soon as possible to their families, and let's hope and pray that there will be a major breakthrough over the weekend."