‘Every Delay is Mortal Danger’: Is Netanyahu Sabotaging Hostage's Lives? 

Crowds gathered at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand an immediate deal to free the remaining captives, with family members launching a scathing denunciation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a recent Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar that has derailed fragile negotiations.

The weekly rally served as a furious public rebuke of the government, which protesters said was prioritizing a military agenda over the lives of their loved ones. Speakers directly linked Tuesday’s failed assassination attempt in Doha to a breakdown in talks, accusing the prime minister of deliberately undermining a potential ceasefire and hostage-release agreement.

“The negotiations have been cut off again, and this time with fire and pillars of smoke. Every delay is a mortal danger,” said Sharon Alony Cunio, a former hostage whose husband, David, remains in Hamas captivity. “I am not prepared to become a widow because of hesitancy or torpedoing of a deal.”

Hostage Families in Despair

Alony Cunio, who was held in Gaza herself, accused the government of “life-threatening procrastination” and said she would not become “another name in the list of victims of government obtuseness.” She noted her husband was left behind when Israel "thwarted the second deal” earlier this year and again when it went on an “assassination mission in Qatar.”

The outrage was shared by Maccabit Meyer, the aunt of twin captives Gali and Ziv Berman, who used sarcasm to assail the strike.

“Now, of all times, it’s necessary to eliminate the political arm of Hamas because there’s 'an opportunity,'” she said as the crowd jeered. “There are opportunities for everything except for Gali and Ziv and the rest of the 48 hostages.”

Meyer questioned the government’s conscience, asking,

“How are you not afraid we’ll get back 48 coffins?” She added, “The people want them back and the people will remember… you’ve messed with the wrong people.”

In a separate statement on Saturday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum delivered a powerful institutional rebuke, declaring Netanyahu to be the “one obstacle” to a deal. The group’s statement directly linked the premier’s stalling tactics to the mounting death toll of captives.

“October 7 has to end,” said Alma Or, whose father’s body is still held by Hamas after she was released . “Everyone must come back, in a deal, now.”