Hostage families rally in Tel Aviv to mark 400 days since their loved ones were abducted

Hundreds of people gather on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, outside the IDF headquarters, to demand a hostage deal, as the families of captives held in Gaza mark 400 days since their loved ones were abducted.

The crowd appears slightly larger than in recent weeks. This weekend’s rally on Begin Road is the first since protests broke out Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ousted defense minister Yoav Gallant, who was considered a proponent for a hostage deal.

A massive sign reading “Why are they still in Gaza? 400 days” hangs from the pedestrian overpass down to street level.

Big white cardboard letters on the street spell out: “400 days — the shame of Netanyahu.”

Though partisan politics are usually absent from Begin Street, the youth wing of the opposition Yesh Atid party has set up an informational stand here.

Protesters chant: “There is nothing more important — every captive must return!”

A block away, some 500 people assemble at Hostages Square and stand in relative silence as they await the start of the main weekly rally organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

With a band of mothers clad in white, Niva Wenkert, the mother of hostage Omer Wenkert, kicks off the rally with a call to join “Shift 101,” a silent protest group.

Following her is actor Lior Ashkenazi, the regular MC at the forum’s rallies, who rails against the politicking at home while the captives have languished in Gaza for 400 days. He notes that tonight’s rally falls on the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, drawing a direct line between the Nazi pogrom and Hamas’s actions on October 7, 2023.