Hostages Still Held in Gaza Cast Shadow Over Passover in Israel

When Yona Schnitzer, a marketing writer from Tel Aviv, attended the traditional Passover Seder meal last year, he said a special prayer for the return of all of the hostages still being held by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

He had thought their freedom would be secured by Passover 2025, but that did not happen.

“It’s become so normalized that there are hostages in Gaza,” said Mr. Schnitzer, 36. “It’s surreal and heartbreaking.”

On Saturday evening, Israelis will observe the beginning of Passover, the weeklong Jewish festival of freedom, for the second time since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war in Gaza. The holiday is usually a celebration of the biblical story of the ancient Israelites being liberated from slavery in Egypt, with families gathering to retell that story, sing songs and eat special foods.

But for many Israelis, the continuing captivity of the hostages has made it difficult to feel the joy of the holiday.

“We will mark the holiday. We won’t celebrate it,” said Orly Gavishi-Sotto, 47, a college administrator from northern Israel. “We can only celebrate when all the hostages are home.”

Ms. Gavishi-Sotto said her family would put an empty chair at the Seder table, symbolizing the hostages in Gaza who could not be with their families.

The Israeli government has said that it believes that 24 of the 59 remaining hostages are still alive.

In January, Israeli and Hamas negotiators agreed to a cease-fire that was supposed to lead to the freedom for the rest of the hostages. Thirty living hostages and the bodies of eight others were returned during the initial six weeks of the agreement, but Israel resumed attacks on Gaza on March 18 after the two sides failed to agree on an extension of the truce.

The Israeli military has since embarked on a major bombing campaign and seized more territory in Gaza in what officials have said was a bid to compel Hamas to release more hostages.

But advocates for the hostages worry that this latest offensive is endangering the captives. More than three dozen have been killed in captivity since the start of the war, both by their captors and by Israeli fire, according to Israeli officials, forensic reports and military investigations.

Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel in the October 2023 attack, according to the government. More than 50,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the start of the war, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in casualty counts. Since the cease-fire fell apart, more than 1,500 people in Gaza have been killed, the ministry says.

Dani Miran, 80, whose son Omri Miran is a hostage in Gaza, said he was planning a simple Seder with his family and trying to reassure his granddaughters that their father would come home.

Omri Miran, now 48, was taken by Palestinian militants on Oct. 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Israeli border with Gaza. He; his wife, Lishay Miran-Lavi; and their two daughters, Roni and Alma, were initially held at gunpoint, according to family members, but only he was forced to Gaza.

“Omri has been in the tunnels for over a year and a half,” Mr. Miran said. “I don’t know what his mental state is. I can only hope he’s strong enough to endure this tragedy.”

The Hostages Families Forum, a group that represents the relatives of many captives, called on Israelis to hold Seders in an outdoor plaza in Tel Aviv that has come to be known as “Hostages Square.” The group described Passover this year as “another Festival of Freedom without true freedom.”

Odie Arbel, 77, a resident of Kibbutz Yiftah in northern Israel, said his family would be using a hostage-themed Haggadah, the text read during the Seder, which tells the story of the Israelites’ liberation.

“A key principle of Judaism and Israeli identity is the redeeming of captives” he said.

More than 68 percent of Israelis say they believe freeing hostages is more important than removing Hamas from power, according to a survey published by The Israel Democracy Institute on Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said the war will not end until Hamas’s military wing and Gaza government are dismantled. Hamas has said it will not free all of the hostages unless Israel ends the war permanently.

Mr. Arbel, who is critical of the government, said while he was reflecting on the plight of the hostages this Passover, he was also thinking about the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

“I’m thinking about the difficulties of both peoples,” he said.