From the Liveblog of
Saturday, August 10, 2024
Gaza fighting gets rare endorsement at hostage rally from cousin of Hamas captive
Cnaan Lidor is The Times of Israel's Jewish World reporter
Voicing a rare position at the weekly rally on Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, the cousin of a hostage in Gaza calls on soldiers to continue fighting Hamas until all hostages are freed, and warns against disunity.
This message by Adam Hajaj, the cousin of hostage Rom Braslavski, 19, is unusual at the rally, whose organizers have for months called on the government to accept Hamas’s terms for a ceasefire and exchange the hostages for Palestinian prisoners. The organizers from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum maintain that the continuation of fighting in Gaza endangers the hostages and needs to stop.
“Forget about politics, left, right, center. It’s not the story,” Hajaj says. “To our heroes in Gaza, the fighters: Continue fighting. Don’t stop till they’re all home,” he adds.
Hajaj begins his address with a reference to the Second Temple, whose destruction Jews mourn on Tisha B’Av, which this year falls on August 12. “Enough with the gratuitous hatred. Enough letting our enemies destroy us from within,” he adds.
The rally, where speakers regularly accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of abandoning the hostages for his political gain, coincides with other anti-government protests across the country.
The largest of the demonstrations is taking place on Kaplan Street near the square, where thousands of protesters often block traffic and clash with police.
Protesters outside the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv are locked in cages as part of an installation displaying the prospect of a theocratic dictatorship in 2025. One cage reads “I’m Gay,” another reads: “I protested for a hostage deal” and a third, which references ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says: “I said Ben Gvir is a criminal.”
Other rallies are being held in Jerusalem, Haifa, Amiad Junction, Kfar Saba and beyond. In Karkur near Hadera, protesters are blocking a road as police warn them to disperse or face arrest.
