On Saturday night, marking 365 days during which 101 hostages have been held captive by Hamas in Gaza, countless Israelis took to the streets nationwide. They called for the return of the hostages through a deal - the living for rehabilitation, and the murdered and fallen for proper burial.
Hamas captivity survivor Liat Atzili Benin was released from Hamas captivity after 54 days during the deal in November. Her husband Aviv was murdered on October 7th, and his body is still held by Hamas. She spoke to the crowd assembled at Carmei Gat.
"I haven't seen Aviv for a year now," she said. "This is the longest I've been without seeing him in the last thirty-six years. Aviv was my best friend, my love, and the father of my three children. I feel his absence every day, every hour. When I returned from captivity after fifty-four days, Dr. Yael Shoval Zuckerman was with me in the first hours. She was the one who told me that my two sons, who were in Nir Oz on October 7th, were healthy, whole, and waiting for me at Sheba Hospital, and that Aviv had been injured and kidnapped. I was optimistic. I told everyone that no one in the world, not even Hamas terrorists, could resist his charm and that he'd surely become the darling of the tunnels and would return home soon. Twelve hours after my return, I was I was informed that Aviv was killed on October 7th. The experience of captivity was pushed aside, replaced by grief over the loss of Aviv."
"I wish that was the extent of my loss, but I lost many more things that day. The night I returned, I didn't have time to thank Yael or say goodbye to her, and after a few weeks, I met with her to do so. I told her that if someone had asked me before what my anchors in life were, I would have said Aviv, our kibbutz, and my work at the Nofei Habsor school. Now, these three things are gone. Fortunately, Nofei Habsor reopened on September 1st. But Aviv is gone, the kibbutz is still in ruins, and our small community is being torn apart from within. We are occupied with the most existential questions - to return or not? To rehabilitate and rebuild or to leave it as is so people will see and remember? How can one continue to live after what happened? How can a community mourn so many friends? Opinions are divided, souls are bruised, anger is high, and a sense of helplessness is paralyzing. There is one thing our community agrees on without dispute. We all know, from young to old, that our most urgent mission is an uncompromising struggle to return the remaining 101 hostages in the Gaza Strip, 29 of whom are from Nir Oz."
"We are on the eve of the end of a terrible year. As per tradition, we will say this year too, with great intention, 'May the year and its curses come to an end.' For us to complete the phrase and wish for the new year to bring blessings, we must cease the madness that has gripped this country, maximize military achievements to reach political arrangements that will ensure calm. Calm that will allow the residents of the Negev and the North to return safely to their homes. But before that, we must do the moral, just, and necessary thing - return the 101 hostages. Abandoning them to their fate will be a mark of Cain on the face of Israeli society as a whole."
''I wish that next year I will sit on the porch of my new home in Nir Oz, counting migrating birds. Then I'll walk along the beautiful paths to the holiday reception on the dining room lawn. Everyone will be there, those who returned to live in Nir Oz and those who built their homes elsewhere. The guests of honor will be the hostages who were returned."