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At UN, Israeli officials and hostage families demand international action to bring back Hamas captives
(New York Jewish Week) — A photo of 3-year-old Israeli twins, Emma and Yuli Cunio, lay on a brick walkway across from the United Nations, alongside a red rose and two pairs of children’s shoes.
The image was arrayed among dozens of flyers with photos of other captives held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, each sheet headlined with the word “kidnapped.” In the center of the display, an Israeli flag was wrapped around a tree.
The installation was part of an effort by Israelis and their supporters to demand action from the international community to release the hostages, and show support for some of their families as they visited the United Nations headquarters — with many flying in from overseas. The visit was part of two days of programs and events surrounding the families’ visit, part of a broad effort in New York City to keep the world’s attention on the hostages’ plight.
The outdoor display was set up shortly after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres incensed Israeli officials by linking the Hamas atrocities to Israel’s control of the West Bank and Gaza.
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” Guterres said in a speech. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Israelis and supporters rally in support of Hamas hostages outside the United Nations, October 24, 2023. (Luke Tress)
That statement led Gilad Erdan, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, to call for Guterres’ resignation — an unusually harsh break between the Israeli mission and U.N. leadership.
“We have not yet finished identifying bodies burned beyond recognition and the U.N. is already blaming Israel for the massacre of our people,” Erdan said. “The secretary-general is responsible for spreading a blood libel. There is no clearer proof that the U.N. has become a stain on humanity.”
In light of the controversy surrounding Guterres’ statement, the families of the hostages hoped to keep the focus on their captive loved ones.
“We are here not only talking about ourselves, we’re here representing 220 families of kids, Holocaust survivors, women, being held hostage,” said Ruby Chen, a New Yorker whose 19-year-old son Itay is being held hostage, after relatives of the hostages met with Guterres at the U.N. “We urge the international community not to talk, which we just experienced now, but to do.”
Alana Zeitchik, whose relatives are held hostage, said, “I still cry as soon as my eyes open,” 18 days after terrorists took the captives on Oct. 7 in a massacre that killed and wounded thousands.
Photos display images of Hamas captives during a rally outside the United Nations, October 24, 2023. (Luke Tress)
“I just want to get them home. That’s all I think about. All we want is for them to come back and we want the world to come with us to help us,” she said.
Erdan, and Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, castigated the U.N. for its perceived inaction in rescuing the hostages. Erdan and Cohen also demanded that Qatar, which funds Hamas and hosts some of its leaders, act against the group. Cohen canceled a meeting with Guterres after his speech linking Israeli policy to the Hamas attack.
But Israelis’ anger at their own government was also visible on Tuesday. When Cohen spoke at an event on Tuesday afternoon in front of the U.N. alongside the hostages’ families, Israeli audience members berated him with cries of “shame” and “resign.” The backlash caused officials behind the podium to be visibly uncomfortable and prompted demands for quiet from Roz Rothstein, the head of StandWithUS, the pro-Israel activist group that led the event.
Efforts in the United States to assist war victims and return the hostages are driven in large part by the organizers and volunteers who, just weeks ago, were leading the protest movement against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Members of Netanyahu’s coalition have been repeatedly shouted down at their appearances since Oct. 7 by members of the Israeli public who blame them for not preventing the Hamas attack. Polls show that most Israelis want Netanyahu to take responsibility for the tragedy and resign following Israel’s war against Hamas.
Cohen stuck to the topic of the hostages.
“There are babies that are captives, twins, Holocaust survivors, and we have one mission – to bring them home,” Cohen said above the heckling. “I want to assure you all that we will not rest until everyone will be back alive and secure to his family.”
Earlier, as the families of the hostages arrived at the U.N., hundreds of Israelis and other supporters lined five blocks of First Avenue, facing the U.N. and bearing red roses and photos of the captives. The crowd chanted “Bring them home” as U.N. staffers and dignitaries strode by and tourists lined up on the sidewalk for U.N. guest passes.
Hundreds of people rally outside UN to demand release of Hamas hostages, as Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen arrives at the UN with some of the families pic.twitter.com/7D0y3v5MqY
— Luke Tress (@luketress) October 24, 2023
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, declined to condemn Hamas at the U.N. on Tuesday, hustled past the demonstration, surrounded by his security detail. Some of the demonstrators, many of whom wore black, wept and embraced each other on the sidewalk.
“They took every person that they saw, they killed every human being that they saw, so it should be in the interest of the entire world to end Hamas,” said Michal Zussman, who organized the demonstration, noting that Hamas had taken citizens of dozens of different countries hostage.
“We need our son back,” said Ronen Neutra, whose American son Omer, from Long Island, was taken while stationed on the border with his tank unit. “We demand that the U.N. and all the countries that are involved, and there are 33 different countries with hostages, will get involved and work together hand in hand condemning what happened there and bring our kids back.”
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The post At UN, Israeli officials and hostage families demand international action to bring back Hamas captives appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.