Families of Israeli hostages demand more is done to ensure their return after six months of war

The faces of the young Israelis who came to this field to celebrate dying where they danced six

months

later there is still pain and disbelief at the music festival site where

more

than 300 people were murdered by Hamas attackers. Family and friends hold signs of

their

loved ones. and anger towards the government, we have not received any invitation or whatever from any government official, so we are very, very disappointed, even

more

angry are those whose posters show

their

relatives held hostage in Gaza and believe that their loved ones could be saved. for an agreement, but the idea of ​​a truce remains intolerable to many at one point, a speeding car plowed into protesters, injuring five, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated again today that there will be no ceasefire until all

hostages

be released and surrender to Hamas

demand

s. allow him to try to repeat the crimes of October 7 over and over again, as he has promised to do.

Hamas hopes that pressure from outside and inside will make Israel surrender to these extreme

demand

s. It will not happen. Israel is ready for a Israel was not ready to surrender, but today there are new threats from old enemies. Iran publishes this list of nine missiles that can reach Israel and warns that Israeli embassies are no longer safe after an alleged Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus last week in Gaza Netanyahu claims they are one step away from victory today, The Israeli army withdrew more troops from southern Gaza, but make no mistake, this is still a very active war and the majority of Israelis still support it.

Nobody said it was easy. Nobody said. that this would be short, the majority of Israelis are still very supportive of the government's continued effort to defeat and weaken Kamas, which is still the vast majority of Israelis, the majority of Israelis want to see the IDF, the Defense Forces of Israel, heading to Rafa in southern Gaza. Gaza and want to see the

return

of the

hostages

, but while Israelis follow the war closely, they are largely shielded from seeing these images of Gaza. The Israeli army is leaving a wasteland in its wake. What does the future hold for you when your cities look like this?

Massa was born on October 7. Rola's water broke while taking shelter from Israeli airstrikes. There's no future. Now the house is gone. There is no life. I can't imagine how we will

return

to northern Gaza to find houses without electricity. water and sewage all our lives will be spent in a tent, it will certainly be a difficult life for a new generation that has only heard the soundtrack of 247 Israeli drones and knows little more than death and hunger. Emily Wither reports that it is difficult to forget those images of brutality. Massacre and abuse perpetrated by Hamas, a prescribed terrorist organization, on October 7, exactly 6

months

ago, one of the first places subject to attack that morning, as we just heard , was the Nova Music Festival near the Gaza-Israel border, where thousands of people were partying.

By dawn, more than 360 people were killed on the spot and many more were taken hostage, some of whom are among the 133 still held captive in Gaza. Hamas devastated the kutza pounds and military bases that day, killing 1,200 people and then taking more than 250 hostages, the worst episode. loss of life in a day in Israel's history our correspondent Andy Davis has been speaking to Steve Brisley from Bridgend in South Wales his sister Leanne and her two teenage nieces Noya and Yahel were murdered in the Bey Kabit his brother-in-law Ellie was taken as hostage her family, she says, cannot cry as they wait day after day for news about Ellie's safety.

Lean was a lot of fun. Noya was a terrible singer, a great dancer. Yel was a bundle of energy, a bundle of joy. And you try to remember. that and remember the good things and try not to focus too much on the way they died because that way Madness lies Steve Brizzle's sister, Leanne, her husband Deli and their daughters, Yahel and Noya, were at home at Kibbutz Berry , near the Gaza border, when the Hamas gunmen arrived, she sent a message to my older brother to tell him that there are terrorists in our house. I can hear them, I can hear them scream, Israel dies.

We know that my sister and two nieces were murdered inside the safe room. um each of them were shot um we don't know if Ellie saw that happen or if he was taken out um before he was killed so as it stands he's been in captivity for over 180 days and we don't even know If you know his family, his world, they were all murdered earlier this year. Hamas said that Ellie's brother, Yosi, here on the left, was also taken hostage, he was killed. Ellie was last reported alive in November. Steve says they haven't heard anything since, what hope is there? you think he's still alive, well it's a cliché that they say it's hope that kills you, but hope is all we have, but realistically, the Israeli authorities have already said the same thing.

About 130 hostages remain. They have information that suggests that 30 of them were already dead. Hamas itself has released information suggesting that more than 70 of the remaining hostages are dead, so he is starting to wonder if he has 1 in three. in4 50/50 chance of being alive. The longer the war goes on, the less likely it seems that he will make it out alive. Months have passed since the last hostage release agreement. Steve Brizzle says Israel's moral obligation to secure more releases is not being met. The UK and others should put more pressure on the Israeli government to achieve a ceasefire.

If someone thinks that the hostages are going to get out alive without a ceasefire agreement, then you know they are delusional, that is why an agreement is reached. It has to be

done

and it has to be

done

now and what do you think of the scenes coming out of Gaza, of the total humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding there? I feel a lot of sympathy for the innocents who are being murdered, he is a Humanitarian in crisis I think part of the problem is that people are making too binary a choice in which you can only feel sympathy for one side or the other and I don't think that that be the case.

Israel hits on you and your girls. Today Steve and his parents were unable to attend the funeral of his sister and nieces due to flights being suspended at the time, so they had to watch huddled around a phone at their home in South Wales while someone filmed him for them and, earlier this year, their parents held the funeral. trip to Israel they feel their loss every day um they went to the Kuts um in February it was LE it would have been Leanne's 49th birthday and they visited the graves they visited her house um they brought some items um they brought Lean's favorite Mama teddy bear is now sleeping with it in his room and says that he talks to him every morning and every night as if he were talking to Lean.

Can I finally ask you what it would mean to you if Ellie is presumably released? You have tried to visualize that moment many times. Yeah, I guess it's being back with him and helping him recover from the events. And I think returning home safely would perhaps be the greatest memory possible in Leanne's lives. Noya and Yel, so I just hope that whatever she saw, whatever she knows, she held on to that small hope that he could rebuild her life and that we will help him do it.