Hostages’ families call for all-in-one release after 3 captives return emaciated

Protesters gathered in Tel Aviv and across the country on Saturday night, demanding that the government see the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal through to its latter stages to ensure the release of all those still held captive by the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The rallies followed the release in the morning of Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were emaciated and frail upon their return.

Some 1,000 people protested outside the Begin Road entrance to the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, accusing the government of abandoning the hostages to certain death.

The Begin Road protest, held down the block from so-called Hostages Square, was bolstered by some 300 anti-government protesters who marched over from Habima Square, where they heard speeches from several public figures including The Democrats party chief Yair Golan.

The demonstrators accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to block the deal from progressing to its second phase — potentially leaving dozens in captivity — so his government would stay intact.

The premier, currently in Washington, had decided not to commence talks on the second phase on Monday, as scheduled in the Gaza deal, reportedly to first discuss the matter with US President Donald Trump.

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker has been held in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and is not up for release in the deal’s first phase, roared to the crowd: “I love you, but I’m boiling.”

“Our prime minister is lounging in a Washington hotel while we watch a Holocaust reality show,” she said, accusing Netanyahu of agreeing to a protracted deal specifically so he could back out of it.

“Instead of one comprehensive deal, Netanyahu gave us a long agreement that drags on for months and phases,” she said, adding: “We don’t need to wait week after week to watch this horrific reality show. Everyone could have been freed in one blow.”

“How has it been nearly 16 months and the negotiating team still has no mandate to discuss the second phase?” she asked. “Why do I need to travel to Washington to tell the US president that my prime minister wants to abandon the hostages?”

“Whoever doesn’t overturn tables to ensure the agreement is concluded in its entirety — whoever derails the agreement — will go down in infamy,” said Zangauker.

She yelled her son’s name, telling him: “I’m doing everything to get you back home alive.”

Addressing all the hostages, she added: “An entire nation is fighting for you. Stay strong.”

‘It’s hell, make no mistake’

Yifat Calderon, whose cousin Ofer Calderon was released last week under the hostage-ceasefire deal, said her relative endured hell in Gaza.

“It’s hell, make no mistake,” she said.

She said Netanyahu’s video statement on Saturday morning’s hostage release, in which the prime minister pledged to topple Hamas, represented further stonewalling by the premier — “toppling Hamas on the backs of the hostages.”

She urged Trump to look at the gaunt faces of Levy, Ben Ami and Sharabi, and pressure Netanyahu into returning the 73 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 who remain in Gaza.

“If he keeps stonewalling, we’ll get more corpses, instead of living hostages,” she said.

Police detained at least two people at the anti-government, pro-hostage deal protest in Tel Aviv, according to a legal group that volunteers services on behalf of detained protesters.

The arrests came as the protest was winding down, with the vast majority of protesters having already dispersed.

Some stayed on the street after the police ordered them onto the sidewalk. A police officer told angry protesters that one of the detainees had used force against a cop.

Chanting “Shame!” some two dozen protesters surrounded the vehicle in which the detainees were held. An officer shoved some of them onto the sidewalk to clear a path for the car to drive north to the nearby Tel Aviv station.

‘Lifted me up and gave me hope’

At a separate protest in Hostages Square, a video was screened of Karina Ariev, one of the five female surveillance soldiers released from Hamas captivity in the ongoing deal.

In the clip, watched by some hundreds of demonstrators, Ariev recalled, “There were times when I said to myself — that’s it, you’re not getting out; but then I saw you.”

“I was exposed to your massive support and struggle and that’s what saved me, it’s what lifted me up and gave me the hope to go on,” she said.

״אסור לנו לעצור, יש שם עוד חטופים שצריכים לחזור הביתה ואנחנו חייבים לעשות הכל בשביל שכולם יחזרו, אנחנו הקול שלהם, אנחנו התקווה שלהם – אני מחויבת להחזיר אותם גם הביתה״

שורדת השבי קרינה ארייב, ששוחררה לפני כשבועיים משבי החמאס, העבירה מסר מצולם שהוקרן כעת בעצרת המרכזית במשפחות… pic.twitter.com/patTqCXgio

— מטה המשפחות להחזרת החטופים והנעדרים (@BringThemHome23) February 8, 2025

“I want to tell you that we must not stop. It isn’t over yet,” said Ariev. “There are still hostages who need to come home.”

She honored the soldiers who “sacrificed their lives so that we could sit here.”

To their families, Ariev said: “I have no words that can offer solace, but I want you to know that I and the entire nation will not forget them.”

Ariev also thanked “all the hostage families, who, despite tremendous pain and divergent opinions, have become one big family, and a big light that shone over the entire people.”

“Don’t forget that unity, don’t lose it — it’s what saved us and what will bring everyone home,” she said. “And even when, God willing, the last one comes back — don’t forget it.”

Finally, Ariev thanked Trump, urging him to “help us proceed from the first to the second phase” of the agreement.

“I really believe you have the power and determination to make it work,” she said, adding: “Am Yisrael Chai!”

‘Jews are left to die in Auschwitz conditions’

Also speaking at Hostages Square, Sharon Aloni Cunio, whose husband David Cunio is held in Gaza and slated for release only in the second phase, accused Netanyahu of failing to live up to the words “Never Again,” which he frequently uses in speeches about the Holocaust.

“The State of Israel knows very well how to say ‘Never Again’ to other nations. The prime minister uses it in every one of his speeches in the United States, where he is now,” she said.

“But what is the meaning of ‘Never Again’ if here in our country, an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv, Jews are left to die in Auschwitz conditions?” she asked.

Addressing politicians who have spoken out against the deal’s second phase, she said: “How dare you?”

“‘Never Again’ means no more Jews emerging from the shadows looking like skeletons,” said Aloni Cunio. “‘Never Again’ means no more stonewalling that makes us bury hostages and not embrace them.”

“I call on the prime minister: Wake up! They’re dying there!” she said.

The images of the emaciated hostages returning “will live in infamy,” she added. “I don’t want my David coming back in a body bag.”

David’s brother Ariel is also still held in Gaza and not slated for release in the first phase of the deal. He was kidnapped along with his wife and three-year-old twin daughters from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Aloni Cunio and the girls were released in a week-long hostage deal in November that year.

Goldberg-Polins urge all-in-one release

As the protests were held on Saturday, the parents of murdered Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin also made a plea for Trump to speed up the release of the remaining hostages.

In a video statement, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin said they felt a particular connection to Or Levy, who was kidnapped from the same bomb shelter as their son on October 7, 2023, as they ran from terrorists who raided the Supernova rave near Kibbutz Re’im.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin said that when Levy was released from captivity in Gaza this morning, one of the first things he asked was if Hersh was okay, “because he had assumed that Hersh had been released long ago, and his brother had to explain to him that Hersh had been murdered five months ago.”

Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin have issued a new call to action, urging President Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to push for the release of all hostages held in Gaza "this week.”

"Our plea to you right now is, now that you've done the hard part of getting… pic.twitter.com/j4uwlVzXiS

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 8, 2025

“Seeing the condition of these three hostages, hearing that Or had no idea what happened to Hersh, that Eli was unaware of the fate of his wife and his daughters, is just a gut punch to all of us that we need to do more,” Polin said.

He directly addressed Trump and his Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, urging them, “Let’s not think about phase one and phase two and phase three and many months. Let’s think bigger and faster. All 76 hostages out this week. End of war.”

“Who benefits from dragging it out for so long? Not the people of this region. Let’s get it done right now,” he added.

Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages were executed by their Hamas captors in August. Their bodies were recovered and brought back to Israel by the IDF.

The Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

After some fifteen months of fighting, a three-stage hostage-ceasefire deal was reached in January 2025, which would see Hamas release the hostages, Israel release thousands of Palestinian security prisoners, and a stop to fighting in Gaza, alongside negotiations that would ultimately result in a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave.

Seventy-three of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 currently remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released 21 hostages — civilians, soldiers, and Thai nationals — during the current, ongoing ceasefire. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.

Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli 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 body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.