Advocating opposite approaches to freeing hostages, rival demonstrators face off outside Kirya

Some 100 people holding signs advocating for uncompromising warfare against Hamas rally in Tel Aviv, facing off with demonstrators chanting “ceasefire now.”

The demonstrations on Begin Road, opposite the Kirya military base, underline growing divides in Israeli society over the war with Hamas, which after erupting on October 7 prompted displays of unity following nine months of a wave of protests against the government’s judicial overhaul that rocked Israeli society.

Members from the two rallies trade insults, in scenes reminiscent of those protests. One woman shouts at the protesters: “What you’re doing is at the expense of the lives of the hostages.”

Another shouts: “Have you no shame, you swine!”

Police separate the two groups, but a woman from the demonstration supporting a deal with Hamas approaches the other and cries out, “Would you also say nothing if your daughter were held hostage?”

One of her ideological rivals, Eyal Lahiani from Beit Shemesh, tells her: “I support freeing the hostages but only through military action.”

The rally of people who oppose a deal with Hamas is taking place for the second consecutive week, Lahiani says, and is led by a hawkish group called the Mothers’ March.