How Israel's grassroots hostage families group became a powerful international force

The Hostages Families Forum, formed in the brutal aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attacks, evolved from a crowd of grieving relatives into an international lobbying network that pressed governments, mediators and foreign leaders to secure the release of Israelis held in Gaza. As the two-year war stretched on, the focal point of the campaign—Hostages Square in central Tel Aviv—quieted. The main stage has been dismantled, posters taken down and the forum’s offices vacated, signaling an end to the high-profile phase of street action even as the search for missing loved ones continues.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on 7 October 2023, 168 have since been brought back alive from Gaza, eight have been rescued, and one remains deceased—the police officer Ran Gvili, whose body has not yet been recovered east of Gaza City. In the Friday vigils that have replaced mass demonstrations, Ran’s family and a small circle of supporters gather at Hostages Square to mark the start of Shabbat, often with a Hanukkah candle burning beside them. Itzik Gvili, Ran’s father, summarizes a sentiment shared by many families: “I feel every day is still the 7 October. We didn’t pass the 7 October, but we are strong, and we’re waiting for him. This gives us hope: the support of the people.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum’s slogan—“Bring them home now”—became emblematic of a broader mobilization that turned a private distress into an international pressure campaign. From the outset, the families leaned on public support rather than official assurances, transforming themselves into a powerful constituency inside and outside Israel. The group divided its work between caring for families—many of whom were bereaved or displaced—and campaigning in Israel and around the world. The Forum recruited thousands of volunteers, including former diplomats, lawyers and security officials, and operated with funding from donations, aided by a high-tech company that lent its Tel Aviv office space.

In November 2023, as the Gaza war intensified, a Qatar-mediated truce briefly paused the fighting. Most women and children hostages were freed in exchange for the release of over 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, with some foreign nationals released as well. The ceasefire was only a pause, however; within days hostilities resumed with renewed ferocity and roughly half of the hostages remained in Gaza. The period proved painful for the Forum: in December, three Israeli hostages were killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza despite signaling a white flag, underscoring the dangers and emotional toll of the conflict.

By early 2024 the Forum broadened its leadership and strategy. It brought in political strategist Lior Chorev to serve as campaign manager as polls suggested Israelis were prioritizing the end of Hamas over the return of hostages. Chorev recalls the climate: “We were in deep war in Gaza, deep war in Lebanon, there was the Iranian threat, and it appeared that everything was stuck. As a civil society organisation, we could not impact whether or not there’s going to be a deal, but we could work hard on the Israeli public opinion to ensure that if a deal came into place, it would have a sound civilian majority within the country.”

The Forum’s activism extended far beyond demonstrations in Tel Aviv. Alongside Saturday night gatherings in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art—now Hostages Square—the group organized concerts, art installations and civil-disobedience actions coordinated with diplomatic delegations and media teams that helped keep hostages at the center of attention. Tal Schneider, Times of Israel political correspondent, described the forum as a de facto foreign ministry for families of the 250 people seized, noting that the campaign “kept going 24/7 for two years.” He added that foreign officials who visited the Forum HQ were often surprised by the scale and persistence of the effort.

The Forum’s reach grew as it built a global audience. In the United States, campaign organizers bypassed parts of Israel’s own political machinery by engaging directly with foreign governments and influential figures. “They needed to bypass their own government,” Schneider observed, noting the shift toward international engagement. The Forum’s leadership also leveraged footage and personal testimony from families to craft a narrative that could travel across borders, including English-language messaging that aimed at trusted interlocutors in Washington.

By 2025, as international opposition to the Gaza war intensified, public opinion in Israel had begun to shift toward backing a hostage deal as a necessary step to end the conflict. The Forum redirected resources toward diplomacy in the United States, where the new political moment created openings for a deal that could secure the living and the dead hostages still in Gaza. The group’s chief strategist, Chorev, and others argued that the enduring priority was to secure a civilian majority in any decision on a ceasefire or prisoner exchange. “As a civil society organization, we could not control whether a deal would come, but we could influence public opinion to support it if it did,” Chorev said.

The Forum’s influence extended to personal encounters with world leaders who would shape the crisis’s trajectory. In July 2024, campaign delegates traveled to Washington for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of the US Congress, carrying T-shirts that read “Seal the deal.” They were briefly arrested for an unlawful demonstration, an episode that underscored the group’s willingness to bear personal risk to sustain momentum. Dickmann says those moments were painful, particularly after his cousin Carmel Gat was killed and his brother Or was freed but left the family scarred. He recalls a moment of resolve: “The most important thing for me was not stopping. It was the only thing that could keep me going.”

As the year progressed, the Forum’s approach grew more sophisticated. It documented and released Hamas videos recovered from Gaza that showed captives celebrating Hanukkah in tunnels, a stark reminder of the human costs behind the numbers. The group’s leadership argued that public campaigns could influence diplomacy by changing the political calculus of bargaining partners. “This basic value of the Israeli theme that you don’t leave anyone behind… was clear to the public even if it was not always clear to every element of the government,” Dickmann added.

By early 2025 the international pressure helped catalyze a new Gaza ceasefire framework. The White House, in coordination with regional mediators, secured a deal in January that began with the release of 33 hostages—eight of them dead—and the exchange of nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners, in addition to a humanitarian aid surge and a partial Israeli withdrawal. Five Thai hostages were among those released. The Forum’s activists traveled to Washington to press President Trump for assurance that all living and dead Israelis would be returned. When Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner arrived in Israel to oversee the ceasefire’s implementation, they received a warm reception in Hostages Square.

But the ceasefire’s second stage remained unresolved. In mid-March, Israel ended the pause for a renewed bombing campaign in Gaza without advancing talks on a second-stage deal that would have secured the return of the remaining hostages still in Gaza. Still, the Forum continued to function, reorienting its mission toward ensuring that every release would be backed by broad civil support and international mediation that could sustain any future deal. The Forum reported that substantial portions of the funds it had raised would be allocated to support Ran Gvili’s family while volunteers persisted in the weekly vigils and street actions that had defined the movement’s early years.

The think-and-do approach of the Hostages Families Forum reshaped Israeli civil society’s engagement with national security dilemmas. The group interfaced with government actors, but it did so as a civilian actor whose legitimacy flowed from the families’ lived experience and the public’s empathy, rather than official clout. For many observers, the Forum’s rise demonstrated how a grassroots coalition could become a major international voice in a conflict so dominated by state actors and regional power plays.

Ran Gvili’s fate remains a central, unresolved thread in the Forum’s narrative. The Gvi­li family has joined another advocacy group—the Tikva Forum—while continuing to participate in Hostages Square ceremonies. A symbolic tunnel, a large “Hope” sign and a piano honoring Alon Ohel—a released hostage who was a musician—still stand at the site, prompting public reflection on vanished and returned lives. The Gvilis have vowed to persist until Ran’s remains are recovered and buried with dignity; a final mass rally is planned for that moment.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has never appeared at Hostages Square, but he has engaged with released hostages and hostage families in other forums, including the Gvili family’s network. Netanyahu’s public statements have emphasized the nation’s determination to bring home abductees, noting that “This nation performs miracles” when it comes to freeing hostages. The family’s multi-group ties—rooted in the Hostages Families Forum and connected to smaller groups like the Tikva Forum—highlight the broader coalition of voices that shaped the war’s domestic and international discourse.

As the world continues to watch the Gaza crisis, the Hostages Families Forum stands as a case study in how civil society can mobilize, organize, and sustain an issue across borders amid a complex geopolitical landscape. The campaign’s arc—from underground parking lot meetings to a global lobbying network—illustrates both the power and the limits of nonstate action in modern conflict.

Additional reporting by Davide Ghiglione and Gidi Kleiman.