(18 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 18 March 2025
1. Various of tents outside the Israeli Defence Ministry, some with pictures of hostages on them
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Roy Emek, Tel Aviv resident:
"I think that getting back to fighting is a death sentence for the hostages. That’s about it. And I think the only reason that the coalition, that the government would like to go back to fighting is to stay in power. It’s got nothing to do with what’s best for Israel. It only has to do with maintaining the coalition in power."
3. Einav Livne, resident of Eshkol, Gaza border area, with sign reading (Hebrew): "Back to fighting=sacrificing the hostages"
4. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Einav Livne, Eshkol resident:
"I’m boiling inside. I think that the State of Israel is consciously sacrificing the lives of the hostages and the possibility of returning the dead to a proper burial, consciously endangering them, essentially giving up on them, the State of Israel, which is supposed to protect its citizens, which is supposed to protect us. Its simply terrible."
5. People sitting on side of road with pictures of hostages
6. Pictures of hostages at Hostages Square
7. Wide of Hostages Square
8. Pictures of hostages
9. People walking in street
STORYLINE:
Relatives of hostages still being held in Gaza and their supporters slammed Israel’s decision to carry out airstrikes in the enclave on Tuesday.
Israel launched strikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, killing at least 326 Palestinians, including women and children, according to hospital officials.
The surprise bombardment shattered a ceasefire in place since January and threatened to fully reignite the 17-month-old war.
Roy Emek, a Tel Aviv resident, described the latest strikes as a "death sentence" for the hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes after Hamas refused Israeli demands to change the ceasefire agreement.
Officials said the operation was open-ended and was expected to expand.
The White House said it had been consulted and voiced support for Israel’s actions.
The main group representing families of the captives accused the government of backing out of the ceasefire, saying it “chose to give up on the hostages.”
“We are shocked, angry and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
The war erupted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Most have been released in ceasefires or other deals, with Israeli forces rescuing only eight and recovering dozens of bodies.
Israel responded with a military offensive that killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza’s population.
The territory’s Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and militants, but says over half of the dead have been women and children.
The ceasefire had brought some relief to Gaza and allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to resume to what remained of their homes.
AP video shot by Ami Bentov
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