At Tel Aviv rally, former IDF spokesman urges government to back ‘very difficult’ hostage release deal

Coinciding with anti-government protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the weekly rally urging the release of hostages in Gaza is held at the latter city’s Hostages Square, taking a more partisan tone than previously as organizers push the government to accept a controversial deal for a prisoner swap with Hamas.

Avi Benayahu, a former IDF spokesperson, addresses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners directly, accusing them of “abandonment, neglect, arrogance and building up” Hamas. He calls Public Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “radicals who want to take us toward chaos.”

Benayahu, a longtime critic of Netanyahu, calls on the premier to accept “a very painful, very difficult” deal with Hamas to retrieve the hostages. “Hamas is encircled, it’s not going anywhere,” Benayahu says of a ceasefire, which the terror group is demanding as part of a hostage agreement.

Nearby, several thousand people are protesting against the government on Kaplan Street. Footage from the protests shows police detaining several protesters.