The Sabbath, or Shabbat, observed from Friday evening to Saturday nightfall, is often marked by Jewish families with a traditional Friday night dinner.
“Only you can make the deal. We want one beautiful deal. One beautiful hostage deal,” said Gideon Rosenberg, 48, from Tel Aviv.
Rosenberg was wearing a shirt with the image of hostage Avinatan Or, one of his employees who was abducted by Palestinian militants from the Nova musical festival on Oct 7, 2023. He is among the 20 hostages who are believed to be alive after more than 600 days of captivity.
Ruby Chen, 55, the father of 19-year-old American-Israeli Itay, who is believed to have been killed after being taken captive, urged Netanyahu to return from meeting with Trump in Washington on Monday with a deal that brings back all hostages.
“Let this United States Independence Day mark the beginning of a lasting peace… one that secures the sacred value of human life and one that bestows dignity to the deceased hostages by ensuring their return to proper burial,” he said, also appealing to Trump.
Itay Chen, also a German national, was serving as an Israeli soldier when Hamas carried out its surprise attack on Oct 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas has devastated Gaza, which the militant group has ruled for almost two decades but now only controls in parts, displacing most of the population of more than 2 million and triggering widespread hunger.
More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly two years of fighting, most of them civilians, according to local health officials.
