From the Liveblog of
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Protesters in Tel Aviv slam PM: ‘A deal that’s not completed murders everyone’
About a thousand people gather for the weekly pro-hostage deal, anti-government protest in front of the Begin Road entrance to the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The protest takes place as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom protesters accuse of trying to thwart the continuation of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, holds security consultations about the future of the agreement.
Speaking at the protest, Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, says she sometimes imagines herself reunited with her son, “having coffee, smoking a cigarette.”
“These moments are approaching with giant strides,” she says.
To jeers, she adds: “The prime minister has tried to thwart the agreement again and again and again.”
“One person stands between us and all the hostages,” she says, referring to the premier.
“Netanyahu — we’re sick of the procrastination,” she says.
Assailing the protracted multi-stage hostage releases, she says, “Shorten the stages, release everyone, give us a victory image without loved ones.”
About an hour earlier, Zangauker had spoken at a separate rally at Hostages Square, a block away, where she also accused Netanyahu of abandoning the captives to keep his coalition intact: “How can you play politics on their backs when you know the Holocaust they are enduring in Hamas’s tunnels?”
The Begin Road demonstration is bolstered by protesters against the government’s judicial overhaul plan who have marched over from Habima Square.
In front of the IDF headquarters, protesters chant: “A deal that’s not completed murders everyone.”
The main block of protesters is flanked by activists from various civil society groups: Members of the Israeli Gay Youth movement, who wave pride flags; a coalition of left-wing groups including Standing Together, Women Wage Peace and Socialist Struggle, and the Movement for Quality Government.
