0
0
Sunday, June 2, 2024: New York City
By: APB Staff Writer
As nearly 100,000 demonstrated Jewish unity up Fifth Avenue, the tone reflected eight months of war, with 120 hostages still held by Hamas, and growing global antisemitism.
Over 70 family members of the hostages led a group of roughly 2,500 marchers representing the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group advocating in Israel on behalf of the kidnapped,
APB News talked with members of the delegation of 70 hostage family members of different nationalities and religions, including Hamas captivity survivors to discuss their frustrations and grief.
Usually a jubilant celebration, the annual parade now in its 59th year was clearly more somber in the wake of the October 7 atrocities to start the parade but then changed to more music and dancing to celebrate Israel to conclude the parade.
On October 7th, thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed over the border with Israel and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped 252.
The unprovoked attack was the deadliest in Israel’s history and likely the bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
The conflicting emotions witnessed during the parade route were evidenced by the smiling faces of bystanders who quickly burst into tears upon seeing families of hostages marched by.
