Protest organizers estimate unprecedented 500,000 at Tel Aviv hostage rally, tens of thousands in Jerusalem, Haifa, Kfar Saba

Some 500,000 people are currently attending the mass rally in Tel Aviv demanding that the government free the remaining hostages held by Hamas since October 7, according to protest organizers.

This would make the rally the largest in Israeli history.

At the Tel Aviv rally, organizers claim that the estimate has been confirmed by police.

Activists on social media say tens of thousands are simultaneously protesting in Jerusalem, Haifa and Kfar Saba, while thousands are also gathered in cities including Beersheba, Netanya, and Rishon Lezion.

At a protest in Carmei Gat, former hostage Adina Moshe, who was released in the November truce, says she told the Shin Bet official who debriefed her of the danger posed to hostages when IDF troops approach tunnels where they are held. “When the IDF enters those tunnels, it is impossible to save the hostages,” she recalls saying, because Hamas “will kill them right away.”

She added: “All my friends who were together with me in captivity in that tunnel were murdered — murdered by Hamas because the IDF approached. Even though I warned — but who am I? — that that would happen.”