Hundreds of Jewish activists call for ceasefire in war between Israel and Hamas Protesters in the Gaza Strip were evicted from the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday as they staged a sit-in protest against Visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuThe Israeli leader’s visit also sparked protests from Palestinian demonstrators and family members of hostages still held by Hamas and its allies in Gaza.
Netanyahu will give a speech US President Donald Trump delivered a statement Wednesday to both houses of the US Congress on the status of the war he launched immediately in response to the Hamas terror attack on October 7. That attack saw Hamas kill some 1,200 people in southern Israel and take about 240 others hostage.
But the 291-day war has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled territory, with a devastating impact on children in particular.
The 291 days have also been traumatic for the families of the Israeli hostages, including Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose 23-year-old son Hersch was among those kidnapped On October 7, Hamas militants attacked a music festival in the southern Israeli desert. He lost most of an arm in the attack, but he is one of 80 prisoners still alive. About 30 others are believed to have died, but their bodies are still in the possession of Gazan militants.
“We wake up every day and we run to work, and we run to the ends of the earth, doing everything we can to try to save Hersh and the 119 other people who are still in Gaza,” Goldberg-Polin told CBS News ahead of Netanyahu’s speech.
She is in the United States this week, along with the families of seven other dual American-Israeli hostages held in Gaza, and is calling on Netanyahu to strike a deal to bring their loved ones back.
It is a demand that has been echoed almost daily by angry protesters in Jerusalem and by a group of former senior Israeli political and security officials. who sent a scathing letter to U.S. congressional leaders on Tuesday, accusing Netanyahu of destabilizing Israeli and American security.
The scathing letter describes the Israeli leader as selfish and self-serving, prioritizing his own political survival over the fate of the hostages and the security of his country, the region and even the world. It holds him responsible for the failure to fight Hamas and the failure to formulate a post-war plan for Gaza.
“We are all pawns in the game of this handful of decision-makers,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin told CBS News. “Everyone in the region is hurting and hurting and hurting, and that’s enough.”
Palestinians in Gaza have also suffered for 291 days, more than half the life of 18-month-old Sewar. The little girl lost both her parents in an Israeli airstrike. Covered in shrapnel wounds and severe burns, she is fighting for her life this week in an intensive care unit, but lying in a cardboard box because the hospital has no more hospital beds.
Goldberg-Polin told CBS News that the hostages’ families understand why Israel went to war, but she argued that the military has diminished Hamas’ ability to stage another attack like the one on October 7, and that the priority now should be getting the hostages home.
Netanyahu has not indicated what he will tell U.S. lawmakers meeting Wednesday, but so far he has been adamant that the war will continue until its stated mission of securing the hostages’ release – and destroying Hamas – is completed.
Goldberg-Polin said she hoped the Israeli leader was not just in Washington to reiterate those points.
“How can you leave this disastrous situation? [in Israel] “Unless there’s something really good that you want to share,” she said. “So we’re optimistic and hopeful that he’s going to leave with something good that’s shared, and I’m going to pray that that’s what happens when he speaks on Wednesday, that he shares positive news.”
The Israeli leader will meet with President Biden at the White House on Thursday, according to Netanyahu’s office, and he is also expected to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris while in Washington, according to a White House official.
Deborah Patta
