Speakers at Tel Aviv rally call on Trump: ‘End this fucking war now’

Speakers at the weekly anti-government, pro-hostage deal protest in Tel Aviv call on US President-elect Donald Trump to end the war in Gaza and secure a deal to bring the hostages home.

From a pedestrian bridge over Begin Road, the speakers address around 1,500 people at the protest in front of IDF headquarters.

Many protesters came from an earlier protest on the adjacent Begin-Kaplan junction.

Shahar Mor, the nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder, pleads in English for Trump to “stop arming the revenge campaign in Gaza.”

“We need our hostages back. We’ll perish without them,” he says. “The former administration failed miserably. You can do better.”

Omri Lifshitz, son of captivity survivor Yocheved Lofshitz and hostage Oded Lofshitz, also addresses Trump in English, asking that he “End this fucking war now.”

Below the speakers’ bridge, an anti-government group hands out red hats adorned with that slogan in big white English letters — not unlike Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats.

After the speeches, protesters hoist burning torches and light a fire. They chant that “we are all hostages of the government of blood.” Police burst into the crowd to put the fire out, shoving protesters in the process. When the officers leave, protesters re-light the fire.

שער בגין, עכשיו: אלפים בדרישה לעצור את הקומבינות של ממשלת ההפקרה ולהחזיר את האחיות והאחים שלנו משבי חמאס!
צילום: שב״פ sha_b_p@ pic.twitter.com/YSiB9hgH37

— Stand With Israel ❤️???????? (@TheBlackFlags1) January 4, 2025

At the earlier protest on the Begin-Kaplan intersection, Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibbon said the government has less courage than “a young female soldier named Liri,” referring to hostage Liri Albag. Hamas issued video of the captive soldier earlier today.

Tibbon quoted a speech he gave last year at the same place, warning the government’s judicial overhaul was leading to disaster.

“But I, too, didn’t know how horrible the disaster would be,” he said.

He assailed impending legislation to exempt thousands of ultra-Orthodox men from military service.

“It’s not just sharing the burden, not just equality of blood,” he said of the demand to draft Haredi men. “It’s a real operational necessity.”