Hostages’ families, anti-government groups rally to mark 10 months since Oct. 7
Weekly protests in all major cities seek to put pressure on government to seal hostage-ceasefire deal
Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and anti-government activists were holding rallies on Saturday night to put pressure on the government to secure the captives’ release, marking 10 months since they were abducted on October 7.
The demonstrations come with Israel on high alert as it anticipates threatened reprisal attacks, by Iran and its proxies, for the killings of Hezbollah top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran at the end of July.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum invited the public to join its weekly demonstration at 8 p.m. on Saturday at so-called Hostages Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum under the banner, “Don’t forsake the hostages.”
Nearby at the intersection of Begin and Kaplan Street, dubbed Democracy Square, anti-government protesters including hostage families called a rally for 8:30 p.m.
The parallel protest, which has in past weeks often joined with the Hostages Forum, was organized by a group of around a dozen hostage families operating under the name “Kulanu Hatufim” (“We are all hostages”), who are known for their fiery protests outside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv and for blocking the Ayalon Highway every Saturday night.
Protests in Tel Aviv, at the intersection of Begin and Kaplan Street, have been held every Saturday night since the movement against the government’s planned judicial overhaul began in January of last year — except for a few-months-long hiatus following the Hamas terror onslaught on October 7.
The anti-government group Moked Caesarea on Saturday labeled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “the financier of Hamas” and called for him to be impeached.
“The October 7 massacre seems far away and every day [we get] more bad news,” it wrote on X in its protest announcement, inviting people to join the rally near the premier’s private residence in Caesarea at 7:30 p.m. “If we stay at home, he stays on the throne. For him to be kicked out, we have to go out.”
Demonstrations were also scheduled in dozens of towns and cities across Israel for Saturday evening, including in Jerusalem, Haifa, Eilat, Beersheba, Herzliya, Netanya, Modiin and Ra’anana.
Despite the heightened alert due to the threat of a major Iranian attack, instructions to civilians by the military’s Home Front Command remain unchanged.
On Friday, Netanyahu’s office said an Israeli delegation will attend ceasefire-for-hostage negotiations with Hamas on August 15, making the announcement immediately after the United States, Egypt and Qatar issued a joint call for talks to resume next week with the aim of swiftly concluding a deal.
There was no immediate response from Hamas to the negotiators’ call.
The American, Egyptian and Qatari statement was welcomed by the Hostages Forum, which thanked the countries’ leaders “for their commitment to the release of the 115 hostages who have already been in Hamas captivity for 308 days,” and appealed to the government and Netanyahu to “demonstrate leadership” and finalize a deal.
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas during the October 7 terror onslaught remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF. 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.
