Some 100 protesters rally in solidarity with hostage families at northern junction

About 100 protesters holding posters of hostages and Israeli flags stand at Beit Ha’emek Junction on Route 70 in northern Israel.

Passing cars and trucks honk in solidarity.

Anat Elbaz, a human resource manager at Sartorius Company in Beit Ha’emek, organized the one-hour demonstration.

“We are protesting in solidarity with the families of hostages,” Elbaz says. “All Israeli citizens are to be valued and we don’t want the government to abandon its citizens.”

“It’s important that the hostages come home already,” says Maysam Sharaf, a biotechnology engineer at the company from the Druze town of Hurfeish, where a soldier was killed and 10 people were wounded in a Hezbollah-claimed attack with explosive-laden drones in June.

She says she hopes for an end to the war.

“There are sirens every night and we hear the booms,” she says. “The conditions are terrible.”

Another company employee, Osnat Kalati, says that some people “argue for total victory,” and prefer not to have a ceasefire now.

“But if there is no ceasefire, it is obvious that no hostages will be released,” she says.