Lower thirds:

0:03  Report by / Ben Fajzullin
0:31  Luis Har, Rescued hostage
1:27  Naomi Or Ofeck, Niece of dead hostage
2:49  Ben Fajzullin, DW Correspondent, Tel Aviv 

Script:

Some thought the protests would peter out, after Hamas released the last LIVING hostages and began handing over the DEAD.

Israelis ARE weary... and struggling... but they're not walking away from this.

ATMO: cheering

72-year-old Luis Har says they were treated like DOGS in captivity. He was rescued after 129 days in a special military operation.

He recalls the day with glee:

+++Luis Har, Rescued hostage (23 sec):
"It was a big surprise. In the beginning we didn't understand what was happening. But they took us and said, 'tsahal tsahal': 'IDF, IDF' and then said, 'We are coming to take you home'. And from this moment we were soldiers, just like the others. We did everything they wanted us to do. And we are here, alive!"+++

The grandfather of 10 tells me why he comes to these rallies in Tel Aviv... again and again:

+++NO INSERT (16 sec):
"I am so happy for the people coming out alive. But it's not finished. We are a big family now. We continue to do everything to get back everyone of the hostages home."+++

+++Naomi Or Ofeck, Niece of dead hostage (16 sec):
"There is real like fear that not all the dead bodies of the hostages will return to us. And there I know that my family and me personally need this closure, in order to move on with our lives and to process everything."+++

Naomi only found out much later that her captured uncle Dror Or was long dead. 

+++NO INSERT (14 sec):
"It was horrible It's like you pictured him sitting in a tunnel and you hoped to bring him home alive this 200 days, which is a lot of time, and then you find out he's dead. It was such a hard moment."+++

The secondary student is here several times a week.  

+++Naomi Or Ofeck, Niece of dead hostage (63 secs):
NAOMI: "I'm here most of my time and when I can, when school you know gives me the time to do it."
BEN: "How do you fit that in as a 15-year old going to school?"
NAOMI: I'm doing the bare minimum at school, but I feel like, I know I can do more, but I don't really have a choice right now. This is my life and this is more important and I feel like I learn so much from being here - more than school can teach me."
BEN: "What have you learnt here?"
NAOMI: "A lot of things. I've learned about politics and about war and about people and how people deal with grief."
BEN: "How do you deal with grief?"
NAOMI: "On the top of the list, it's being here with people, that understand my pain and understand what I'm going through this two years and I feel like this is the warmest environment that someone could ask for and this is what helps me."+++ 

+++Ben Fajzullin, DW Correspondent, Tel Aviv (13 sec):
"I was here at the beginning of the war two years ago and two years on the same numbers of people, with the same determination are down here tonight, to ensure the very last deceased hostages are returned."+++

This is a nation -- standing together in solidarity -- managing to hold up over such a long, agonizing period of time.

END