Protesters in Jerusalem demand hostage deal, say captives will return only through agreements, not combat

Hundreds of demonstrators demanding the government reach a hostage deal are gathered in Paris Square outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem.

“We have seen that our hostages will come back to us through agreements and not through combat,” says Tom Barkai, an organizer with the Jerusalem branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, to the crowd to open tonight’s demonstration, taking place half a year after Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Onstage, reservist and former Labor party activist Yaya Fink is requesting forgiveness from the family members of some 130 hostages still held in Hamas captivity for “returning home after 142 days of reserve duty without succeeding to return your loved ones home.”

Unlike previous weeks in which protesters marched from a regular anti-Netanyahu protest outside the President’s Residence to Paris Square to hear from family members of the hostages, the order of tonight’s protests is flipped, with the Hostage Families Forum speeches taking place before the anti-Netanyahu ones.

Rotem Sharabi, the niece of Yossi Sharabi, who was murdered by Hamas in captivity, and Eli Sharabi, who remains hostage in Gaza, is singing her own rendition of “Shir HaMaalot” to conclude tonight’s speeches.