Just after 3 pm on Sunday, over 100 young, old and canine residents of Lexington and neighboring towns walked eastward along Mass. Ave, below a sea of American and Israeli flags they hauled in tow.
Under the red, white and blue banners, many walkers held a child in one hand and a poster of a hostage, reading, “kidnapped,” “bring the hostages home!” or “get them out of hell!” in the other.
That group is Lexington and Bedford’s local chapter of Run for Their Lives, a global organization that arranges walking events to call for Hamas to release the over-100 hostages it’s holding captive in Gaza. The local chapter has been walking through the town’s center every Sunday since November 2023.
“This is a humanitarian issue,” said Lexington resident Danit Levy Netzer, who moved to the US in 1982 from Israel. “People who come to this march have a range of political views…but we’re clear that we want to have the hostages returned.”
This week’s walk came at a particularly poignant time because the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel was on Oct. 7. That date also falls at the midpoint of the 10 days spanning Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holidays.
Iran also sent about 180 missiles into Israel last week, on Oct. 1 — the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks between Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East, according to the Associated Press.
The walkers plan to continue marching until all of the hostages are released. At Sunday’s march, residents were heavy-hearted and mournful after walking for almost a year now.
“It’s an indescribable sadness really — every week we come, rain or shine or snow…hoping that this is the last week,” said Sabine Charbit, a Lexington resident.
The group gathers every weekend to “make people remember” the hostages that have not been released, Graham Celine, a Woburn resident, told LexObserver. He stressed that they have “peaceful” intentions.
Likewise, Levy Netzer told LexObserver that everyone who shows up at the chapter’s rallies is a humanitarian who cares for innocent lives. “And that goes for innocents on both sides,” she said.
Levy Netzer said she participates in the group’s weekly walks, as frequently as she can, to set an example for her children of the pride she has for their heritage and in “being a Zionist.” She prefers to march in Lexington instead of in larger cities like Boston or Washington because she wants her neighbors to see that “there is a strong and loud [group] of people [in Lexington] who care about Israel.”
Ran Yaniv, the group’s organizer and Bedford resident, said the local chapter has only canceled one walk due to inclement weather over the past year.
About 1,200 Israelis were brutally slaughtered in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Of the 250 taken hostage that day, about 100 remain missing, AP reported.
Israel responded to that attack by waging a war against Hamas militants in Gaza, where the fighting has killed over 41,000 people and displaced about 1.9 million, according to AP. The conflict has spread since its genesis — Israel is now fighting Lebanon’s Hezbollah, facing escalating threats from Yemen’s Houthi rebels and contending with a mounting conflict with Iran, which backs Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
“I want this war to end just like my Palestinian neighbor wants this war to end,” said Levy Netzer.
Thanks to the walkers for letting people know that the Israeli hostages have not been forgotten. And thanks to the Lexington Observer for spreading the word.