‘Not in trickles or phases’: At Tel Aviv rally, hostage families demand one-stage deal
Relatives and supporters appeal for ceasefire across country, argue deal would be ‘magnificent victory’; separate anti-Zionist protest in city accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza
Protesters gathered across Israel Saturday evening to repeat their call for a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The protests have been held weekly nearly every Saturday night since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, which saw terrorists kill some 1,200 people and kidnap 251.
Some 500 people gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum’s weekly rally to demand a deal to release the remaining 101 captives all at once.
“There is no time for a multi-stage deal and no use for it,” said Ronen Neutra, father of Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra, who was kidnapped while serving as a tank commander near Gaza.
Two of the possible deals currently being discussed are an Egyptian proposal to release four hostages during a two-day ceasefire, and a multi-stage, Qatari-American proposal that would ultimately see all hostages released and the war ended.
Hamas has rejected the proposed deals, insisting that any agreement include an upfront commitment by Israel to end the war and withdraw all its forces from Gaza. Israel has been accused by mediators of hindering progress in negotiations on several occasions by introducing new demands.
כיכר החטופים
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Earlier draft agreements envisioned a staggered release, beginning with “humanitarian” cases, meaning female, elderly and injured hostages.
“All the hostages are humanitarian [cases],” Neutra argued, adding that a speedy release of all the captives would afford Israel a “magnificent victory” over Hamas.
Speaking in English, Orna Neutra, the hostage’s mother, said that during the Hamas assault, her son fought Hamas terrorists, knowing “that if something happened to him, he would not be left behind.”
“That is the Israeli ethos,” she added.
Noam Idan Ben Ezra, whose brother Tsahi Idan was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, said: “The hostages’ release requires an end to the war… The army has already won. Now it’s the political echelon’s turn.”
Ben Ezra demanded a deal to release “everyone now, not in trickles and not in phases — Tsahi and all the hostages.”
The rally also featured speeches by Amir Idan, Tsahi Idan’s cousin; Noam Katz, whose father Lior Rudaeff was killed on October 7 and his body kidnapped to Gaza; freed hostage Maya Regev; Ilan Dalal, father of hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal; and Dr. Ayelet Levy Shahar, mother of hostage Naama Levy.
Levy Shahar urged the Israeli public to “take to the streets,” calling on them to “vote with your feet to save the values on which the state was founded.”
A similar-sized protest was held simultaneously a block away on Begin Street, also calling for a hostage deal and accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of thwarting negotiations.
Bolstering the Begin Road rally were organizations opposed to the government’s judicial overhaul advanced last year, including Darkenu, the Movement for Quality Government, and the reservist protest group Brothers in Arms, as well as a column of far-left activists who marched over from an earlier anti-war protest at Habima Square.
That demonstration saw some 300 people protest under heavy police guard against the “genocide” in Gaza, an allegation Israel denies.
“Killing children is a war crime. Starvation is a war crime. Destruction of cities is a war crime,” activist Alon Lee Green said. “All of this is happening in the name of the settlements,” he added, using the term “the Israeli Ku Klux Klan.” He assailed Israeli media and the Zionist left for “not telling us what is happening in Gaza.”
In Jerusalem, protesters calling for the release of hostages marched from Zion Square to Paris Square.
Some anti-government activists carried a large banner reading “A spy in my office? I didn’t see anything. Netanyahu — a useful idiot,” a criticism of Netanyahu amid an ongoing investigation into the alleged leak of classified documents from his office said to be aimed at countering the hostage families’ regular protests.
Simultaneous anti-government protests also took place in Kfar Saba, Karkur and Hadera.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas in the October 7 attack remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
