{"id":42774,"date":"2025-08-03T18:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42774\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T18:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:42:09","slug":"slain-hostages-mother-says-israel-should-surrender-to-hamas-to-save-captives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42774\/","title":{"rendered":"Slain hostage’s mother says Israel should ‘surrender’ to Hamas to save captives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iris Haim, the mother of slain hostage Yotam Haim<\/a>, suggested in a social media post Sunday that Israel should \u201csurrender\u201d to Hamas and end the war to free the remaining hostages in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe surrendered to Hamas for 20 years, we gave more and more and more, and now we need to free those who still can be [freed],\u201d Haim wrote on Facebook, following the recent release of propaganda videos showing two Israeli hostages, Rom Braslavski<\/a> and Evyatar David,<\/a> nearing starvation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me and for my family, it\u2019s too late, Yotam won\u2019t return,\u201d Haim wrote of her son, who was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, and managed to flee his captors but was accidentally shot<\/a> dead by Israeli troops in Gaza on December 15, 2023, alongside two other Israeli hostages. The soldiers mistook him and the other hostages as a threat in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurrender? I\u2019m prepared to surrender, in exchange for the hostages, in exchange for the last honor that remains in the face of the families like mine who still have hope,\u201d Haim wrote.<\/p>\n

She added that \u201cif the army is strong enough, there will be companies, platoons and divisions who will protect the residents of the Gaza border \u2014 that\u2019s the mission. Not at the expense of the survivors of starvation and abuse who still have breath in their lungs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe need to look the enemy in the eye. We will not defeat them. This picture is a picture of failure for our country, and after it there will be no picture of victory,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Yotam Haim, left, and his mother, Iris Haim, in an undated photo. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

\u201cMy child will never come back,\u201d said Haim. \u201cI am a citizen of this country and I do not think we will have a revival without [surrender].\u201d<\/p>\n

Referencing Sunday\u2019s Jewish fast holiday of Tisha B\u2019Av, Haim said it was \u201ca day that I was not connected to in any way before October 7, and now I understand the significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tisha B\u2019Av commemorates the ancient destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, as well as a litany of other Jewish historical tragedies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can choose whether we go to our destruction or revival,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Haim, unlike most of the hostages\u2019 family members, has been vocal in opposition to criticism of the government during the war, and has been absent from most hostage rallies.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Protesters demanding a deal to free hostages in Gaza block Tel Aviv\u2019s Ayalon Highway and hold a banner reading, \u201cAbandoning the hostages = the destruction of the Third Temple. Bring them home. Get out of Gaza,\u201d on August 3, 2025. (Aviv Atlas\/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)<\/p>\n

War broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. Of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, Israel believes 20 to still be alive.<\/p>\n

Negotiations to return the final hostages have largely stalled since Israel and the US pulled their negotiators from Doha last month due to frustration with Hamas\u2019s response to the most recent phased ceasefire proposal.<\/p>\n

While those talks had aimed at securing a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of half of the living and dead captives, a senior Israeli official told reporters Thursday that Israel and the United States are now aligned on aiming for a comprehensive framework<\/a> in place of a partial ceasefire. However, the official did not mention the timeline for such an agreement.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iris Haim, the mother of slain hostage Yotam Haim, suggested in a social media post Sunday that Israel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-42774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}