Multiple hostages were established in the following days, but the 2023 agreement was soon collapsed: Israel has blamed Hamas for having denied the terms of the agreement trying to release three corpses instead of three living women’s hostages. The members of the Israeli war cabinet have supported in closed meetings that Israel should neglect the infringement and maintain the ceasefire, to save as many hostages as possible. “I thought it was right to continue to carry out the agreement in every possible way,” said Gadi Eisenkot, a retired general and a member of the war cabinet, last year the “UVDA” investigative show. But Netanyahu and his wider security cabinet canceled them. That night, Israel resumed his bombing campaign in Gaza. “This was my first breaking point,” Einav told me. “I remember thinking, how do I detach from the floor?”
That winter, Einav Methials Netanyahu for the second time by attacks, together with relatives of other hostages. “We will do everything in our power to bring your loved ones home,” he told them again. When families pushed him to what he meant by “everything”, Netanyahu has waffled, according to Einav. “It was then that thought began to torment me that something bad was happening,” he said. Einav did not agree with the few families in that meeting that asked to prevent humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Einav knew from Ilana that that little food that the hostages received came from help packages and a block would also damage the Palestinians of everyday, which found morally wrong. But Netanyahu “seemed to support those families, after telling us something completely different,” he told me. “I realized that his war goals” – to eliminate Hamas and bring the hostages back – “they were on a collision course”.
Gil Dickmann, whose cousin was among those captured by Kibbutz Be’eri, recalled that he had paid attention to Einav in that meeting. “He had an attitude without bolts,” he said. He told me he was the last to speak and informed Netanyahu who just like his vote had given him a mandate to drive, he would “take away that mandate”. In the previous months that meeting, “we had the feeling that we had played, but we didn’t know who,” said Dickmann. “So, over time, it has become clear who was the greatest player of all. It became clear that the responsible person was Netanyahu. “
At that point, several hostage families had started protesting outside the EDF headquarters near Begin Road. They hoped to intercept politicians and security as they were led overall. The first to do so was Avichai Broduch, a Kibbutz Kfar Aza pineapple farm whose wife and children were captured by their home. Days after the attacks, he created a chair and a hand designed sign: “My family is in Gaza”. He was soon reached by Hadas Kalderon, whose two children and ex -husband, Ofer, were held hostage by Hamas. Kalderon and a handful of other women formed a group called the guard of mothers. Einav from time to time with his daughters and offered his support, but initially he moved away from public action. As he said, “I was still under the influence of the Bibi-Ist worship”.
The children of Broduch and Kalderon were returned as part of the 2023 truce agreement. Hadas and Avichai now dedicated themselves to the rehabilitation of their children. So Ifat Kalderon, Ofer’s cousin, took the initial road guard with a handful of other relatives and supporters. In February 2024, Einav, still anguished after the meeting with Netanyahu, decided to sleep outside the defense headquarters until Matan’s return. Kalderon and the other women organized a tent and covered for her and offered their sympathies. Once the police ordered her to remove the tent, at the beginning he joined the rest of the group.