Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky decries those attending today’s protests calling for a deal to free the hostages and end the war in Gaza as “rioters in Hamas’s service.”
The lawmaker, who chairs the Knesset Finance Committee, posts on X that the protesters, who include relatives of the 50 hostages held by Hamas, are condemning the captives to death and endangering soldiers fighting in the Strip.
“The rioters in Hamas’s service are back,” he posts on X above a photo of a fire lit across an Israeli highway. “The torchers of granaries and highways are burying the hostages deep in the tunnels and are trying to weaken IDF soldiers in the middle of a war.”
The reference to granaries is an allusion to internecine Jewish fighting in the period of the Second Temple, some 2,000 years ago. In another reference to that era’s extremists, he calls the protesters “the Sicarii of 2025.”
Protests on behalf of a hostage deal have also drawn condemnations from other members of the coalition, who say the demonstrations undermine Israel’s fight against Hamas and lessen pressure on the terror group.
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
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