Freed hostage Iair Horn, released earlier this month as part of the Israel-Hamas hostage deal, called to bring the remaining 63 hostages home urgently in a statement made in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square on Wednesday.
He was addressing 38 ambassadors and diplomats from the US, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Argentina, Italy, and additional countries, who had gathered to pay respects to slain hostages Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas, who were laid to rest earlier that day.
Laying the Bibas family to rest
Horn also lit a candle and laid a flower in the square in memory of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir, his friends from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Horn described how Ariel was afraid of him at first but soon grew to know him and seek him out on the kibbutz. He had just begun to try to develop a similar relationship with Kfir when they were taken captive on October 7.
“I’m sorry they’re not here. My heart is broken,” he said. “I am standing in front of you; that is true, but 63 are not yet. There are 63 more hostages in the tunnels, among them my little brother, Eitan Horn,” he said.
“Until Eitan and the others are back, I won’t really be here. Maybe my body is here, but my soul isn’t,” he said.
This is the first time I’ve stood for so long under the sun,” he added. “I did not get to breathe fresh air for 498 days. And while we are here enjoying the sun, or perhaps not appreciating it at all, there are hostages fighting just to breathe,” he said.
“Small things like putting on sunglasses or being blinded by the sun, wearing a hat or feeling cold, the freedom to decide. Small things that are actually big things, like my little brother Eitan.”
Horn thanked US President Donald Trump, saying that without him, he would still be in Hamas captivity. “We need you so that the next phase of the agreement will be signed now. My brother and the rest of the hostages don’t have time.” He urged for the continuation of the hostage deal and for the second phase to be agreed on.
He told the gathered ambassadors that their world is very meaningful, offering his return from captivity as proof of this. “I ask you, please help me bring all my brothers and sisters back. Because until everyone returns, I haven’t really returned either,” he added.
“I stand before you knowing what they are feeling right now and what they are going through. And it’s not good, and every day that passes, it gets worse. No person in the world should have to go through these things. We don’t have time. The hostages don’t have time. Please help me bring my little brother Eitan home and all the hostages. There is nothing more important than this right now.”