Hostage rallies mark one year since first and only hostage-ceasefire deal
Weekly rallies are first since restrictions on public gatherings relaxed following ceasefire in Lebanon, come as Hamas signals openness to further negotiations
Thousands of Israelis attended rallies across the country Saturday night marking one year since the weeklong ceasefire that saw Israel release 240 Palestinian prisoners in return for 105 women, children and foreign nationals held by Hamas in Gaza.
Negotiations have since failed to secure another hostage-ceasefire deal.
“After 421 days of war, it’s clear to everyone: only a deal will bring the hostages home,” said the Hostages Families Forum in a press release ahead of the central weekly rally on Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square.
Set to speak at the rally were three women who were released in the deal last November: Keren Munder, who was freed along with her mother Ruti and young son Ohad, and whose father Avraham was killed in captivity; Ilana Gritzewsky, whose partner Matan Zangauker is still held hostage; and Chen Goldstein-Almog, who was released along with her three children, Agam, Gal and Tal, and whose husband Nadav and daughter Yam were killed during the Hamas onslaught that sparked the war in Gaza.
The rally will also feature speeches by Liron Mor, whose 5-year-old niece Avigail Idan was released in the November deal; and Thomas Hand, father of Emily, 8, who was also released in the deal.
Smaller rallies will be held in Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat and the south’s Shaar HaNegev Junction, among others. An anti-government, pro-hostage deal rally will also be held outside the Begin Street entrance to the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, a block away from Hostages Square.
The rallies for the hostages have frequently been accompanied by anti-government protests.
A group urging “non-violent civil rebellion” said that before the Begin Street protest, it will hold a demonstration of its tactics in preparation for a “day of reckoning.” After the protest, the group is set to march to Dizengoff Square in the city’s center.
The “civil rebellion” group has over the past two weekends set up a stand at the Begin Street protest registering people to commit to a future disobedience campaign involving roadblocks and labor strikes.
Saturday night’s rallies will be the first since the IDF Home Front lifted restrictions limiting public gatherings in Tel Aviv to 2,000 people. The restrictions, put in place in September amid the escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, have been lifted after a ceasefire was reached there.
The Hostage Families Forum criticized the government for failing to sign a similar deal with Hamas in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has touted the agreement with Hezbollah as a way to pry the Iran-backed terror group away from its weaker, Gaza-based ally Hamas. Following the agreement, Hamas signaled it would be willing to return to the negotiating table for a hostage deal. A Hamas delegation was set to arrive in Cairo on Saturday for talks about the deal.
Hamas terrorists kidnapped 251 hostages during the thousands-strong rampage through southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, sparking the war in Gaza.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during the November truce, 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.
