Israelis head to streets to rally for and against brewing hostage deal

Thousands attend Tel Aviv demonstration in eager anticipation of Hamas’s response to proposal, while hundreds in Jerusalem fume at government over ‘surrender’ to terror group

  • Demonstrators call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, outside the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, January 14, 2025. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)
    Demonstrators call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, outside the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, January 14, 2025. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)
  • Demonstrators protest against a potential emerging hostage deal with Hamas, in Jerusalem, January 14, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
    Demonstrators protest against a potential emerging hostage deal with Hamas, in Jerusalem, January 14, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Many Israelis headed out to the streets Tuesday evening to make their voices heard regarding the emerging ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas in Gaza, including thousands who rallied to support it and hundreds who decried it as creating grave future dangers.

Many officials have said this week that a deal to end the 15-month war is around the corner, with 33 hostages to go free in the first, 42-day phase in exchange for a partial Israeli withdrawal and the release of many hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, including more than 150 terrorists serving heavy prison terms for murdering Israelis.

The three-stage deal is envisioned as ultimately securing the release of all the 98 hostages, ending the war and rebuilding Gaza with security mechanisms for Israel.

With Israel apparently signaling approval of the mediators’ final draft agreement, thousands of activists for the hostages packed into Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Tuesday evening, in tense anticipation of Hamas’s answer.

The square hosts a regular “Singing for Their Return” unity rally of prayer and song on Tuesdays, featuring Israeli musicians, which usually draws a few dozen people.

The crowd this week was noticeably larger than previous Tuesdays, hearing performances by well-known artists and featuring former hostage Moran Stella Yanai as well as the father of current hostage Yarden Bibas and other relatives.

The aunt of murdered hostage Omer Neutra called on the audience to recite the Jewish prayer “Shema Yisrael” together, with a resounding “Amen” at the end. She said she was sending strength to the hostage negotiators, with the hope that they would bring home all the remaining hostages.

Soul singer Evyatar Banai sang his 1997 song “I Have a Chance,” stressing the line: “I have a chance to be saved.”

Singers Omer Adam, right, and Aviv Geffen perform during a rally calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, January 14, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

And popular singers Aviv Geffen — identified with the left — and Omer Adam — identified with the right — performed together, with Geffen saying: “Omer and I are here tonight to say there are no differences between us, no religious and no secular Israelis, no Ashkenazi and Mizrahi, there is just the nation of Israel, the Jewish nation, praying that the hostages come home. That is our prayer.”

Captivity survivor Yanai described her release in the November 2023 hostage deal, 54 days after she was kidnapped from the Re’im-area Nova music festival during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

“On the 49th day, after weeks of darkness, they put me in a costume. There were two girls with me,” she said.

“They took us to the exchange point,” where Hamas handed the hostages over to the Red Cross, she said.

“Right there, a step away from freedom, they pulled me back,” she continued. “The two girls went on, and I was left behind… in hell.”

Released hostage Moran Stella Yanai speaks during a rally calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, January 14, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

“That night was the longest in my life,” she said. “I imagined them touching the world outside — eating a luscious fruit, drinking clear water, doing what they want to do. That was my light in the darkness.”

“But how much hope can a person have after 466 days?” she asked. “I saw the horror, the fear, and I understood something simple — nobody should be pulled into the darkness a moment before the light.”

“None of them can remain there. It’s not an issue of strategy or ideology. It’s about humanity and that every single one must return, until the last hostage,” she said.

She spoke in English as well, appealing to the international community with a plea to help bring the hostages home.

“These are our children, parents, brothers and sisters, individuals with dreams, hopes and loved ones longing for their return,” she said. “Prove that compassion can prevail over despair.”

Demonstrators block the entrance to Jerusalem, during a protest against the proposed hostage deal with Hamas, January 14, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, hundreds of right-wing demonstrators marched to the Prime Minister’s Office and later blocked several central intersections, in opposition to the hostage deal proposal currently on the table.

The “emergency protest” was organized by the Gevura (“Heroism”) Forum, a right-wing group of families to slain soldiers, in the wake of the quickly advancing negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

The families and their supporters urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back out and continue the current military offensive.

“We are calling on the prime minister not to give into this deal… a deal that will free thousands of terrorists with blood on their hands,” said an organizer from a loudspeaker. “We won’t forget, we won’t forgive. You don’t have a mandate to surrender to Hamas.”

The families led at the front of the march alongside Likud MK Amit Halevi.

“We are marching in order to give our prime minister the strength to succeed,” said an organizer.

Before the march set out to the Prime Minister’s Office down the road, Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Weitzen, a bereaved father from the West Bank settlement of Psagot, recalled the eulogy he gave for his son who fell in combat on October 7.

“Four days after Simchat Torah we were privileged to bury Amichai in Martyr’s Forest on Mount Herzl, and over Amichai’s grave I said: ‘We are taking it upon ourselves not to conduct negotiations with terrorists,’” he recounted.

He went on to define Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas as a “struggle between good and evil.”

“When you have an enemy who is evil to you, you lay siege to it. You don’t need to do anything aside from that. To lay siege, to fight, to stop the electricity… Then, maybe the evil will understand, and get down on its knees and beg to return us hostages back to us,” he said to loud applause.

Right-wing demonstrator holds up sign that reads: ‘You don’t have a mandate to surrender to Hamas,’ during a protest against the brewing hostage deal in Jerusalem on January 14, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Near the Prime Minister’s Office, family members of slain soldiers spoke before the crowd. Amitai, the brother of slain soldier Elkanah Wiesel, addressed Netanyahu.

“I remember, as if it were today, one of your first [press conferences] at the start of the war. You called this war a war between the children of light and children of darkness,” he said.

“I ask you today, Mr. Prime Minister, what happened to the children of light and the children of darkness? Did something change so that you started to talk with the children of darkness?” he asked.

Later that evening, hundreds of demonstrators blocked an intersection in central Jerusalem in protest of the ongoing negotiations, with traffic temporarily blocked in both directions before police cleared the road with little difficulty.

“A freed terrorist is tomorrow’s murderer,” protesters chanted as some sat on the pavement. Most participants hail from Israel’s religious Zionist community, with men donning kippahs and women in head-coverings.

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