(JNS) — Families of deceased hostages whose bodies are still being held by Hamas in Gaza carried an empty coffin through Jerusalem on Thursday to raise awareness of their plight and call for the return of their loved ones.
“I am attending this rally because we, the families of deceased hostages, are a unique group,” Ruby Chen, the father of American-Israeli dual citizen Sgt. Itay Chen, 19, told JNS on Thursday.
Itay, from Netanya, was stationed at the Nahal Oz army base as part of a tank unit when he was captured along with three other soldiers on Oct. 7. He was one of six hostages with U.S. citizenship thought to have still been alive in Gaza. The IDF declared him dead on March 12.
“We decided to organize an alternative service to highlight the fact that the State of Israel must do everything it can to bring all the hostages back, both the living and the deceased,” Ruby Chen said.
Hundreds of new families will be mourning on Remembrance Day, but some will not have anywhere to pay their respects.
“We do not have a burial site. If you ask me where I will be going on Monday, I can tell that I don’t have a good answer,” Chen told JNS. He will also be attending Saturday’s rally at Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square,” which this week will focus on those declared dead in Gaza.
“I am calling on the people of Israel to join us. I am asking leaders and people worldwide to pray with us regardless of their religion so that we will be able to have closure and that our deceased will be buried in dignity,” Chen said.
According to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, 38 families in Israel will be mourning while the remains of their loved ones are still held by Hamas in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Lior Rudaeff from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak was declared dead, exactly seven months after he was presumed to have been abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 onslaught.
Two more Israeli victims of Hamas’s massacre were declared dead late last week — Elyakim Libman, 23, a security guard at the Supernova music festival presumed to have been taken hostage, but whose body was found in Israeli territory, and Dror Or, 49, who was kidnapped to Gaza from Kibbutz Be’eri.
