Galvanized by signs of life, thousands rally for hostage deal and against government

Thousands of protesters in cities nationwide rallied for a hostage deal and against the government on Saturday night, after Hamas released separate propaganda videos showing signs of life from several Israeli captives.

In a shift from past weeks, hostage families and anti-government protesters in Jerusalem joined forces to organize a thousands-strong march throughout the heart of the city, which ended with speeches at the top of Ben Yehuda Street.

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, three separate protests converged near Azrieli mall while dozens of demonstrators led by some hostage relatives attempted to block Ayalon Highway, spelling out the word “halas [enough]” by igniting fires on the road. Police said that they arrested seven protesters on Saturday evening.

The Times of Israel witnessed a skirmish in Tel Aviv between police and protesters which led to Ayala Metzger, the daughter-in-law of hostage Yoram Metzger, being briefly detained.

Before the protests merged in the coastal city, the father of Omri Miran, one of the two hostages featured in a Hamas propaganda video released earlier Saturday, told a crowd of thousands in Hostages Square that he worried about his son’s current condition.

“As I had expected, he had a beard. Because he has nothing to shave with,” said Dani Miran of his son, whom Hamas terrorists abducted from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the October 7 onslaught that triggered the ongoing war. “I saw another thing — I scrutinized every millimeter in the image — I saw he’s not brushing his teeth, either.”

Dani, who has himself grown a beard since his son was abducted, vowed to shave it off with his son when he returns.

Miran called on Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and accused mastermind of the October 7 atrocities, to “make a small step and spare bloodshed for both peoples.” Addressing Sinwar, he continued: “Show some humanity and [Israel’s] cabinet will reciprocate, I am sure of it.”

To Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet, Miran said: “Approve any deal — any deal — that’s feasible. I implore you, one request: Make the decision now.”

In the edited three-minute-long video of Miran and fellow hostage Keith Siegel, they identify themselves, speak to their families, and say they are hoping for a deal that would see them and other captives returned home.

Related: Hamas airs clip of 2 hostages, as FM says Israel would delay Rafah op for a deal

Also at Hostages Square, Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan was kidnapped on October 7, called on the cabinet to end the fighting in Gaza to secure the release of him and others in a deal with Hamas.

“Declare an end to the fighting if it leads to the retrieval of the hostages,” she said at the weekly demonstration organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Zangauker, a former Likud voter from the city of Ofakim, which is one of the party’s bastions and where Hamas terrorists killed dozens of residents on October 7, criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“No [parliamentary] seat in the world is worth my son’s life, or the lives of 132 hostages in Gaza,” Zangauker said in a speech to thousands of people on the square. “Stop clinging to your seat,” she said, in reference Netanyahu.

Zangauker also derided Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot of the National Unity party for leaving the opposition to join Likud’s wartime coalition.

“You did not achieve the goals of the fighting and you let Netanyahu kill deals for the hostages’ retrieval. You whitewashed Netanyahu’s crimes against the hostages,” Zangauker charged in remarks directed at the two centrist politicians.

Later in the evening, at another protest on Begin Street, Zangauker spoke above the demonstrators from Azrieli bridge, accusing Netanyahu of “sacrificing” her son and the rest of the hostages while warning against an invasion of Rafah.

Meirav Svirsky, the sister of Itay Svirsky, a hostage who who was killed while held in Gaza, also called on the government to not send forces into Rafah, saying it could cause the deaths of more Israeli hostages.

After protests held by hostages’ families and an anti-government rally convened outside Azrieli mall in Tel Aviv, demonstrators began running down Begin Street, bypassing police barriers and skirmishing with law enforcement.

Police said in a statement that they arrested seven protesters for disturbing the peace and clashing with officers, with video showing plainclothes cops forcefully detaining a young woman after she shouts through a megaphone.

Romi Naim, told the Ynet news site she had chanted, “[Itamar] Ben Gvir is a criminal,” referring to the far-right minister in charge of police, before the officers detained her, charging that was the reason for her arrest. The video clip of the incident begins as Naim is putting down the microphone.

עילת המעצר האלים של הנערה: צעקה ״בן גביר עבריין״. אחרי 2,000 שנות גלות יש לנו שטאזי משלנו. צפו עד הסוף (צילום: תומר גולדנברג) pic.twitter.com/285ZA0u2Pt

— Dan Adin דן עדין (@adin_dan) April 27, 2024

‘Survive!’

On Wednesday, Hamas published footage of 24-year-old hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7 and has quickly become a symbol of the hostages’ plight, particularly in Jerusalem, where his family resides.

Protesters carrying banners with illustrations of Goldberg-Polin that read “Survive!” and “Free Hersh!” led at the front of the massive march to Jerusalem’s famous Ben Yehuda Street, where demonstrators converged to hear speeches from the literary critic Motty Fogel and Elad Or, whose brother Dror was taken hostage by Hamas from Kibbutz Be’eri.

The march was organized jointly by anti-government protest groups and the Jerusalem branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, replacing the separate weekly rallies that the respective groups typically hold each Saturday night.

Protesters chanted a mix of slogans in support of a hostage deal and against the current government, and shouted “shame” at mentions of Netanyahu and his governing coalition.

“We won’t give you peace and we won’t let you lose yet another opportunity and continue with this deadly foot-dragging of the past few months,” said Or, addressing the government. “We [the hostage families] have no holidays, or happiness or respite.”

He called the weeks leading up to Hamas’s release of the proof-of-life videos “long weeks of stagnation and desperation,” in which he didn’t know whether any of the captives were alive.

“People are alive,” he said. “They are watching us, alive, and requesting we save them from this hell.”

Fogel, fully disillusioned with the cabinet, addressed his comments to Israelis who not included to protest rather than Israel’s political leadership.

“I don’t want to appeal to the government, I want to appeal to citizens. People who aren’t here, people that aren’t comfortable with these demonstrations,” he said, adding that he empathized with those who felt uneasy about the notion of protesting during wartime.

“We took a major blow on Simchat Torah [October 7], it was a horrible massacre, our lives can’t as continue as normal… We are without answers and we feel that we need to use force, and with just a bit more force, a bit more, it all will work out,” he said. “It is very tempting to think this way, it’s difficult to think differently, but look at the reality. Nothing has changed for the better, nothing. The hostages are rotting in captivity.”

The protest in Jerusalem dispersed peacefully and without any arrests.

Additional anti-government demonstrations were held in Haifa, Pardes Hannah-Karkur and Caesarea, where protesters demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s private home.

It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 12 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.

The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 34 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.

Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.