Israel, not Hamas, is derailing the Gaza cease-fire and preventing the hostages' return

They can still be brought home. And those who did not survive deserve to be returned and buried with dignity … We must return to the ceasefire and negotiations, and secure their release. A deal is the only way to bring them all back. Please, do not let other families suffer the same fate as mine,

Svatitzky said

The reality is that this attack [in Gaza] is being used as a tool for political interests. The way [they] operate is to create this external threat and accuse those who raise their voices of being antidemocratic,

said Ora Peled Nakash, a former senior officer in Israel’s navy and an organiser of the protests

The past weeks have proven … Hamas will never return all the hostages willingly. Only massive military pressure, a complete blockade including cutting off electricity and water, and occupation of territories that will lead to Hamas’s collapse, will cause them to beg for a ceasefire and a deal that will return all the hostages together, in one stage,

the Tikva Forum of Hostages’ Families said in a statement

We are refusing to participate in a war that neglects and will kill our hostages,

Standing Together Co-Director Alon Lee Green said

They’re alone. They don’t have any friends left, not in the White House, not in the Congress and not even on college campuses,

he said of the crackdown on support for Palestine across many US educational institutions

Why aren’t you fighting in the negotiations room? Why have you backed out of an agreement that could have brought everyone home

the forum asked the government

The Islamic Resistance [Movement], Hamas, can no longer use the ceasefire, or even the hostages, as a bargaining chip,

he said of negotiations on the second stage

The hostage families demand a meeting this morning [Tuesday] with the prime minister, the defence minister and the head of the negotiating team in which [the officials] will clarify how they can guarantee that hostages won’t be affected by the military pressure and how they are planning to get them home,

the group said

Things are very different now, ... We have a new [US] administration that says, ‘Release the hostages now – or else.'

Mitchell Barak – an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu – told Al Jazeera

Trump has been clear: ‘Finish the job.’ The US will back anything that Israel chooses to do to achieve that end,

he said