On a windy evening in Jerusalem, a few dozen protesters gathered in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

According to reports, the protest took place at short notice because at the same time meetings between Israel's most highly-ranked politicians were happening in that same building, discussing the most recent developments in the indirect negotiations with Palestinian militant group Hamas on a ceasefire deal that would result in some of the Israeli hostages returning home.

Some of the protesters held a big air balloon above their heads in the shape of the yellow ribbon, the symbol adopted by campaigners calling for the hostages' release. On the balloon were white stickers with various numbers written on them with a black marker pen: 155, 344, 356.

These numbers represent the number of days since October 7, 2023, when the hostages were taken. This started when Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh was murdered in August 2024 by Hamas in Gaza, appeared in interviews with a sticker and a number on it to raise awareness for the hostages' plight. As of July 2025, this number has surpassed 650.

"The era of selection is over," reads one of the signs, referring to the choice process which determines who will be released and who will have to stay in Gaza's tunnels until another deal is struck.

Hostages killed while waiting for deal

The story of Carmel Gat shows just how significant the risk to a hostage's life in Gaza is.

Gat was kidnapped from her home during the incursion in southern Israel that Hamas led on October 7, 2023. Israel, the United States, the European Union and others designate Hamas a terrorist group,.

She was supposed to be among those released as part of the first hostage deal in November 2023 between Israel and Hamas that saw over 100 captives in Gaza freed and 240 Palestinian prisoners released. But when the truce collapsed, she remained in Hamas captivity.

After Gat survived 328 days, Israeli soldiers found her and five other Israeli hostages dead in a tunnel in southern Gaza — the autopsy report revealed she and the other hostages were shot at close range. Gat was 40 years old.

Her cousin, Gil Dickman, has become one of the most vocal supporters of a deal for the release of the remaining hostages. He told DW that the current state of the negotiations feels like "deja vu."

"A year ago (in July 2024), many family members of hostages were with Netanyahu in Washington, DC, myself included. The only difference is that Carmel and five other hostages were alive back then," Dickman recalled.

"Carmel could have returned had Netanyahu made the right call."

Mistrust in Israeli leadership

Yehuda Cohen's son, Nimrod, is one of the some 20 hostages believed to be still alive — 30 others are thought to be dead. In a conversation with DW, Yehuda Cohen outlined how he lost his trust that the Israeli government would bring the hostages home.

"I don't have any trust in my own government, I don't trust Netanyahu," he said. "I only have trust in the American administration that it will force Netanyahu into sealing a deal."

This hope — that the US may yet force through a deal — is prevalent among campaigners in Israel. At the protest in Jerusalem, many signs called on US President Donald Trump, rather than Netanyahu, to do everything in his power to bring the hostages home.

List of reasons for mistrust 'very long'

Cohen lists the reasons for the mistrust in the Netanyahu government, including the insistence on Israel staying in the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of land on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, and Netanyahu's aides allegedly leaking classified documents to Bild, a German tabloid, to influence public opinion in Israel in favor of the Netanyahu government's position.

According to Cohen, the list of reasons for hostage families not to trust the Israeli government is "very long."

While Netanyahu told the hostages' family members that an offer to bring all hostages home in one deal "was never an option," Hamas officials went on record on several occasions emphasizing their interest in a deal that would return the remaining hostages and bring about an end to the war in Gaza.

"It is our government that insists on a selection process between the hostages," says Dickman, calling this reckoning "painful to apprehend."

Still, both Cohen and Dickman agree that any deal bringing hostages back is a good thing. "Even a partial deal means my son's turn is getting closer," Cohen said.

Israeli ethos in the balance

The Israeli public is no stranger to hostage situations, whether it is the Sabena Flight 171 hijacking in 1972 by the Black September Organization, Hamas's kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman in 1994 or the group's abduction of Gilad Shalit in 2006.

As a result, the principle that no one is left behind became deeply rooted in Israeli society over the years. Dickman believes that while the Israeli public supports this ethos, the same cannot be said of the country's government.

"This is a government politically controlled by people whose ethos is, in my eyes, more jihadist than Israeli," he said, referring specifically to the far-right parts of Netanyahu's coalition, primarily National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who both want Palestinians to leave Gaza and Jewish settlements to return there.

"Their goals involve land, not human life, and they consider their goals sacred," he says, adding that the demand for the return of the 50 hostages is also about Israel's future.

"It's about whether this country will become such that is willing to sacrifice life — mine, yours — for so-called 'sacred' targets, or rather a country where life is sacred."

Yehuda Cohen struck a similar tone: "We have a prime minister who's only committed to himself," he said. "You have people in this government who openly support those who abuse prisoners, which results in the risk of revenge against my son. There's no solidarity in this society; it's each one to their own."

According to Yehuda Cohen, the only way to bring his son home is to keep fighting for the hostages' release and the end of the war, whether that means speaking to the media or protesting outside Netanyahu's office.

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp, Ben Knight