The Israeli prime minister’s announcement of plans to take control of Gaza City has been met with concern in Israel, particularly by families of hostages still being held by Hamas.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum: Bring Them Home Now has said the plan “means abandoning hostages”.
“By choosing military escalation over negotiation, we are leaving our loved ones at the mercy of Hamas,” the group said in a statement.
“The only way to bring the hostages home is through a comprehensive deal.”
The move was decided by majority vote at a security cabinet meeting which lasted 10 hours.
While the meeting was taking place, some protesters chained themselves together outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Anat Angrest, the mother of hostage Matan Angrest, said at the time: “For a year and 10 months we’ve been trying to believe that everything is being done to bring them back – you have failed.”
The group’s collective statement, published on Friday following the announcement, accused the government of “leading us toward a colossal catastrophe”.
Fifty hostages are still being held by Hamas – 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
Yehuda Cohen, whose son, Nimrod, is one of t he captives, told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme that Netanyahu’s decision is “endangering my son and other living hostages”.
“It is endangering the hostages and prolonging their suffering,” he added.
More widely within the country Tal Schneider, political correspondent at the Times of Israel, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday there had been a “huge public backlash” in Israel against the plans.
“All public polling suggests that the public is very much against this step,” she explained.
A hotelier in Tel Aviv, Danny Bukovsky, told Reuters news agency: “I think it’s a death sentence to all the hostages that are still being held there. And it’s the wrong decision to do it at this time.
“I think that we have to bring all the hostages back home safely.
“Afterwards, if they decide to take over the entire Gaza Strip – it’s their decision. I think we should do something about […] Hamas anyway, but not at this time.”
Israeli resident Talya Saltzman also told Reuters bringing the hostages home should be “first and foremost”.
“I know the plan is to get rid of Hamas, but we’ve been trying for two whole years,” she told the news agency.
“It just doesn’t seem that there’s any real forward movement with this plan and unless we can get rid of all of Hamas in one go [I] just think that the hostages need to be top priority and then we need to stop all of our soldiers from dying.”
