Anti-government demonstrators gather outside Kirya in Tel Aviv

Groups of demonstrators are gathering outside the Kirya Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv to protest against the government for various reasons.

The predominant message of the main protest on Kaplan Street outside the Sarona shopping center is for early elections to be held and for the current government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be dismissed.

Nearby, a demonstration, led by a group of Israel Defense Forces veterans from the 1973 Yom Kippur War standing on a fake tank, is calling to end the draft exemptions that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students receive.

At the Kirya’s entrance on Begin Street, a demonstration organized by Brothers and Sisters and Arms, a reservist group that was among the leaders of last year’s anti-judicial overhaul protests, is calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

There is a large police presence throughout the area. Police have barricaded large chunks of Begin and Kaplan streets, as well as some of the exits to the Ayalon Highway to prevent protesters from blocking that road, as they do every week.