Jerusalem mayor urged to rename Gaza Street to Hostages Street

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum appealed to Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion in a letter on Thursday to rename the capital’s Gaza Street to Hostages Street until all of the captives return from Hamas captivity.

Doing so will “carry a clear and moral message in the heart of the nation’s capital: Until everyone comes home, life in Israel cannot go on as usual,” the forum said.

It stressed that the new signs “will serve as a daily reminder to the city’s residents and to every passerby of the paramount duty to bring back all the hostages” for rehabilitation of the living and a proper burial for the dead.

The families wrote that the move, while symbolic, would be a meaningful step to express solidarity with the hostages’ families, increase public and international awareness, and convey a message of unity and mutual responsibility.

Gaza Street is a main road in the upscale Rehavia neighbourhood of Jerusalem, built in the 1920s. The street was built on part of the historical road that connected the Old City’s Jaffa Gate south to the Mediterranean coast, including Gaza City.

The Prime Minister’s Residence is located near Gaza Street.

Tel Aviv adopted a similar symbolic gesture in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

A public plaza located in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art was given the temporary name of “Hostage Square,” following a protest encampment at the site on behalf of the families of those kidnapped into Gaza.

Many Israelis and foreigners have visited “Hostage Square” over the past 22 months and taken part in demonstrations of support every Saturday evening and on other occasions, calling for the release of those abducted into Gaza.

Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, with 49 abducted 678 days ago and one, IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin, taken in 2014. Of the 50, Israel presumes that 20 are alive.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Jerusalem would only agree to end the war on Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a deal freeing all remaining hostages.

“We realized that they were basically misleading us and, in any case, would keep many hostages in their hands, both alive and dead,” the premier told i24News regarding the negotiations for a partial deal.

“We want them all, I want them all, both the living and the dead,” said Netanyahu. “I want to bring them all back as part of ending the war, but under the conditions of ending the war on our terms.

“As part of the discussion on our terms—the release of all the hostages, both the living and the dead—we are at the stage of a single deal; there is no going back,” he said.

On Aug. 1, Hamas released a propaganda video showing hostage Evyatar David in an extremely emaciated state, held in a Gazan tunnel, after Palestinian Islamic Jihad did the same for abductee Rom Braslavski on July 31.

The videos showed David, 24, digging what he says will be his own grave and detailing severe starvation, while Braslavski, 22, also appears to be starving.

JNS