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Hostage release timeline is delayed, extending an excruciating wait for their families
KIBBUTZ NIR OZ, Israel (JTA) — Israel has begun making preparations for the care of traumatized hostages who are freed from Gaza, as the country reaches a pivotal moment in its six-week war with Hamas.
But confusion reigned late Wednesday about the timeline for the truce that would see the release of at least 50 hostages, including children, their mothers and the elderly. After Israeli officials suggested that some hostages would be released on Thursday, Israel’s national security council chair said the first release was not expected until at least Friday.
The tweaked timeline is shaking the delicate optimism that had set in for a country that has been consumed by grief and anxiety since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking roughly 250 hostages.
Officials say they still expect the deal to be finalized, and top Israeli security officials are in Qatar to sign off on the agreement. Sources tell Israeli media that one source of the delay could be disagreements between Qatar and Hamas.
Some reports suggest that Israel has gotten a list of the first hostages expected to be released, though whether that was true was not clear. Either way, exactly who is on the list won’t be released publicly in advance, to help families manage their hope, officials said on Wednesday.
But U.S. President Joe Biden said he expected Abigail Mor Idan, a 3-year-old who was taken alone after her parents were murdered, to be in the first group. Her fourth birthday is Friday.
Soldiers who have been tasked with escorting the released hostages back into Israel were given detailed instructions by the Israel Defense Forces. The instructions, which circulated on social media, tell the soldiers to ask the children if they are hot or thirsty, to ask permission before hugging or lifting the children and to defer questions about where their family members are until later.
For the families of the hostages, the news that some could be released is complicated. The families have operated as a single lobbying force since shortly after Oct. 7. Now, if the release happens as anticipated, they will be divided into those whose hopes have been fulfilled and those who are still waiting.
Natali Madmon’s 77-year-old mother, Ofelia Roitman, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, along with 15 of her neighbors. She was injured at the time and was taken without her epilepsy medication; now, she could well be among the 50 hostages expected to be released during the four days of the planned truce.
Madmon said she had thought about the order in which the hostages are released. “I’ll answer what my mother would say: She’d want the children out first, for sure,” she said. “I hope they won’t forget the elderly either, who are kind of in a second childhood.”
But she said she would not dismantle a display she had set up in Nir Oz’s dining hall, showing all of the kibbutz’s missing and dead as if they were seated at the tables, until everyone was accounted for.
“If they don’t give back the hostages the dining hall will remain like this forever,” Madmon said.
The mailboxes at Kibbutz Nir Oz are marked red for those who were murdered on Oct. 7, black for those taken hostage. (Deborah Danan)
Some in Israel oppose the hostage deal, saying that it rewards terror and incentivizes Hamas to take captives in the future. They also are concerned that a pause in fighting could allow Hamas to regroup and evade the IDF’s advances.
Madmon said she wasn’t worried that a truce could compromise Israel’s stated mission to destroy Hamas.
“They should give whatever needs to be given to make sure the hostages get home,” she said. “And only after they should deal with everything else. I have total confidence that our army will know what to do then.”
Renana Jacob’s two sons were taken hostage from Nir Oz. The last thing she heard her younger son, Yigal, say by phone was, “You can’t take me. I’m too young.” He turned 13 while in captivity, appearing at one point in a video shared by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Jacob hasn’t seen the video. On Wednesday, she said, “I am very hopeful my sons will return soon — and hopeful that all hostages will be released in the near future.”
Benny Avigad’s brother was killed at Nir Oz. No one in his family was taken hostage, but he said the kibbutz was like a family.
“I want all the people to come back,” he said. “Here we know everyone, from the 9 months old to the 85 year old. It’s a small community. So we will be maybe a little happy for a moment, the children and the wives are coming back, but what about the rest?”
He added, “For us, the living, this is the most important thing. We will not continue thinking about coming back here until the situation is finished and all the kidnapped are back here.”
Families of the Israelis held kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in Gaza march along with hundreds of Israelis towards the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, as part of a protest calling for the immediate release of the hostages, Nov. 18, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Their comments echo that of the group that has been fighting for the captives, spearheading a global effort to keep their names and faces in public view through “Kidnapped” posters, demonstrations and creative public displays.
“There is no victory until every last hostage returns home,” the group said in a statement late Wednesday. “The Hostages and Missing Families Forum is working to support the release process of those now returning, pressing on until total liberation comes. We will not rest until every individual is home safely, after 47 days deprived of freedom and peace.”
Shortly after the statement, the Israeli government announced the delay. If hostages are released on Friday, it would be after 49 days in captivity.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.