As the hostages now approach their third Simchat Torah in Gaza, she said, the feeling that time has frozen only grows stronger.
Nearly two years have passed. This Rosh Hashanah marks the second holiday the hostages will spend in captivity. Forty-eight men and women remain in Gaza, and for their families, the High Holy Days have become a painful reminder of the time that has slipped away since October 7.
Maccabit Meir, the aunt of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, described Rosh Hashanah Eve as “a black day” – not because it feels different from any other day of suffering, but because holidays amplify the sense of time standing still.
“The holidays give it a kind of weight, the passage of time that they’re there,” Meir told Maariv. “They were kidnapped just after Rosh Hashanah. The seasons change, the year circles around, the holidays come and go, and they are still there.” As the hostages now approach their third Simchat Torah in Gaza, she said, the feeling that time has frozen only grows stronger.
Vicky Cohen, the mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, shared the same sense of longing. “Here we are again in the High Holy Days, and they’re still not here. Nimrod is still not home. You can’t celebrate, you can’t mark the holidays,” she said.
Life, she explained, has been unrecognizable since the abduction. “Since October 7, we don’t… there are no family meals, not on Fridays and not on holidays,” Cohen said. For her, the holidays are especially painful: “It’s just another sad day, and for me it’s even harder than a regular day. I just want it to pass, for the holidays to end, for Nimrod to already be home.”
In a social media post on Monday Yarden Bibas shared the sentiment: “The holidays are not holidays for me without you. Dates and days are meaningless. Shiri, Ariel, Kfir – I love you most in the world, always in the world.”
Pictures of Shiri Bibas and her children Kfir and Ariel, in Jerusalem, February 20, 2025 (credit: FLASH90/CHAIM GOLDBERG)
The families’ anxiety has only deepened with the latest military operation in Gaza. “From the moment they began Operation Gideon’s Chariots II, our anxiety and fear have been 24/7,” said Meir. “We are so afraid of the arena where they are, even before the fighting now underway.”
She noted that senior security officials, including the IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir and the Mossad director warned that the operation could endanger both hostages and soldiers.
Cohen expressed the same concern but went further, offering pointed criticism of the war itself. “It endangers the hostages, it endangers the soldiers. It will lead society to ruin,” she argued. “This eternal war is a political war, serving nothing but personal political interests. It must end, and everyone must be brought home.”
At the Prime Minister’s doorstep
In recent weeks, families have relocated their protest encampment to the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, hoping to bring their voices closer to the seat of decision-making.
“We moved our center of gravity to Jerusalem, to the place where decisions that can save our loved ones are made,” Meir explained. Cohen said she would remain there throughout the holiday: “I’m here in the encampment, and I’ll be here tomorrow, on the eve of the holiday.”
The families called on the public to join them on Rosh Hashanah Eve at 6:30 p.m. outside the residence. “We are calling on the people of Israel to sit with us at the holiday table where our leaders refuse to. We will have no holiday without them. The people of Israel will have no future without them.”
Despite their relentless presence outside the Prime Minister’s home, the families said they feel abandoned by the country’s leadership. “No one from the government level has agreed to meet us, to talk, to listen, to look us in the eye,” Meir said. “There are no expectations, so I have nothing to be disappointed about, because personally I don’t expect anymore.”
The disbelief at the passage of time is evident in their words. “Of course I didn’t think we’d reach two years,” Cohen said. “Of course not. It’s unimaginable that we’ve gotten to almost two years. How is that even possible?”
For this holiday, the families have decided not to mark it at all. “For us, there is no holiday,” Meir stressed. “We won’t mark it in any way – not the symbols, not the holiday itself. We’ll be out here with the public that supports us and doesn’t tire.”
Her message was stark: “Gali and Zivi want to return to the life they deserve, and there are others like them, living hostages whose condition we’ve seen in videos, and we know they don’t have time,” she said. She also mentioned those who have already been killed in captivity, “who could disappear into the rubble of this war.”