‘Government of blood’: Protesters stage mock funeral for slain hostages, demand deal
Thousands march to IDF HQ in Tel Aviv, carrying 27 coffins to represent captives killed by Hamas, on fifth straight night of protests after six hostages were murdered in Gaza
Thousands of protesters marched through Tel Aviv on Thursday, carrying 27 mock coffins representing 27 hostages killed in Hamas captivity in Gaza, demanding a deal to secure the remaining hostages’ release. Significant crowds also gathered in Rehovot, Eilat and Jerusalem.
It was the fifth straight night of demonstrations, following the recovery last Saturday of the bodies of six Israeli hostages. They had been murdered days before Israeli troops reached them, almost 11 months after they’d been kidnapped from Israel during Hamas’s October 7 attack.
News of the hostages’ execution sparked outrage in Israel, and drew charges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been refusing to pursue negotiations with Hamas in earnest, avoiding concessions that might have allowed the Israelis to come home alive but would have endangered his ruling coalition.
As protesters in Tel Aviv gathered at Habima Square ahead of the march, Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was one of the six slain hostages, accused Netanyahu of “sentencing my cousin to death.”
Some members of the crowd shouted: “Murderer!”
“She was abandoned to her death by a government that could have saved her,” Dickmann said, noting the number of days Gat was held captive. “There were 327 opportunities to save her, and each and every one of them was missed.”
The hostage families and supporters, carrying the caskets, held a mock funeral procession along Begin Street, in the direction of the Begin-Kaplan intersection, in front of the IDF headquarters.
The Tel Aviv thoroughfare has been a locus of demonstrations for a hostage deal and has been blocked by protesters every night since the slain hostages’ bodies were recovered last weekend.
When the 27 coffins arrived at the intersection, the protest began in earnest, swelling to some 2,000 people, who chanted slogans against the government and in favor of a deal.
“We are all hostages of the government of blood!” protesters yelled. “A deal that isn’t signed murders everyone!”
“If there isn’t a deal, we’ll burn down the country — this is the last chance!” the crowd chanted.
A bonfire was lit on Begin Street but quickly put out by police. On one side of the crowd, the road was graffitied with the names of hostages. On the other side, cardboard planks spelled out: “Here lie our hostages.”
Inside the crowd, a man in Hasidic garb drew attention and applause as he delivered a philippic against Netanyahu.
“Redeeming the hostages is the entire Torah!” he shouted into a megaphone.
Police arrested six people at the demonstration, according to an organization that represents detained protesters. There was no immediate comment from police.
As the protest wound down, police on horseback rebuffed some 100 protesters who attempted to march outside the demonstration area on Begin Street.
Central Tel Aviv police chief Micah Gafni was seen pushing one protester out of the crowd and snatching his megaphone.
A column of officers later marched into the crowd and confiscated a protester’s drum, eliciting sarcastic applause.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, protesters gathered near the homes of Economy Minister Nir Barkat, Knesset Member Aryeh Deri, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, as well as in the city’s central Zion Square.
In Rehovot, protesters marched behind a banner showing the faces of the six slain hostages recovered last week beside the biblical injunction, “Do not stand idly by your fellow’s blood.”
Netanyahu held a discussion on Thursday night, believed to be about ways of retaliating against Hamas for the murder of the six hostages.
Channel 13 reported, however, that military officials were expected to tell Netanyahu that taking punitive action would be difficult and that any move seen as aimed at revenge could hurt talks for a hostage-ceasefire deal and thus further endanger the lives of remaining hostages.
Both Israel and Hamas have reportedly toughened their negotiating positions since the killings, while the United States continues to attempt to bridge the divide. American officials said they would produce a “final proposal” for a deal in the near future, possibly as soon as next week.
Talks have been snagged for weeks on the issue of the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border, with Israel insisting on maintaining a military presence there to prevent arms smuggling, and Hamas and Egypt insisting on an Israeli withdrawal.
Netanyahu has repeatedly defended his treatment of the corridor as a dealbreaker in recent days.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Lazar Berman and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
