Hostage families again demonstrate outside Netanyahu’s home demanding deal

Around a hundred protesters, many of them family members of the captives, demonstrate outside the prime minister’s private residence for the second night in a row, demanding a hostage-ceasefire deal.

“Where is this government? Why, amid the extreme fear and sadness, do we need to wage a battle for the return of our loved ones against those who abandoned them?” says Maccabit Meir, the aunt of twin Hamas hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, to the crowd.

She accuses the government of “choosing to sacrifice them [the hostages] over and over” ever since Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.

Police have erected crowd control barriers distancing the protesters from Benjamin Netanyahu’s home, keeping them at a distance of some 150 meters (500 feet). Last night, police hung tarps up on fences around the building, which hostage families claimed was meant to stifle their protest.

As protesters chant for a hostage deal, four activists dressed in Greco-Roman garb coat themselves in fake blood and lie on the street.

One protester holds a sign that reads: “This is Sparta,” referencing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks yesterday that Israel may be forced to become a self-reliant “super-Sparta” amid increasing global isolation.

A counterprotester approaches the demonstration and shouts at the protesters, accusing them of supporting the notion that the Gaza war is a genocide. Police distance him from the rest of the crowd and he eventually leaves the area.