Over 100,000 nationwide protest renewed Gaza fighting, Shin Bet chief’s ouster
Rallies much larger than in recent weeks; opposition leaders warn of national strike if gov’t defies High Court; ex-hostage says she felt abandoned when fighting resumed last time
Well over 100,000 Israelis attended protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and dozens of other cities across Israel on Saturday night — far more than at recent rallies — as anger over the government’s resumption of fighting in Gaza and the planned removal of the country’s top gatekeepers boiled over.
At Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, tens of thousands filled the plaza and spilled out into the surrounding streets for the weekly anti-government demonstration — a marked increase from previous weekends, when roughly half of the square remained empty.
The surge in attendance was sparked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and assert greater control over the levers of power.
The protest at Habima Square preceded a second demonstration at nearby Hostages Square, where the public answered a call from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum for a “rage rally” after the fragile two-month ceasefire in the Gaza Strip shattered earlier this week when Israel launched a large-scale aerial offensive followed by a renewed ground campaign.
“The return to fighting could kill the living hostages and cause the fallen to disappear,” the forum warned in its rallying cry to the public. “The only fight should take place in the negotiating room, for the immediate return of all the hostages.”
“Hostages come first,” read the statement. “We can’t give up on them now.”
Habima Square turned into a sea of Israeli flags interspersed with the banners and flags of center-left opposition parties Yesh Atid and the Democrats, whose respective heads, Yair Lapid and Yair Golan, both addressed the teeming crowd.
A large screen mounted on the stage read “Stopping the dictatorship mania,” and protesters chanted: “Netanyahu is an abandoner. Netanyahu isn’t competent!”
The government “is doing everything to start a civil war here,” warned Lapid at the beginning of his address. “Netanyahu is openly pushing for it.”
Referring to statements by senior government ministers over the weekend in which they promised to defy the High Court of Justice should it block the unanimous cabinet decision to fire Bar, Lapid warned that “if the October 7 government decides not to obey the court ruling, it will turn itself that day, that moment, into a criminal government.”
“If that happens, the entire country must stop. The only system that is not allowed to stop is the security system,” Lapid insisted.
“The economy needs to strike, the Knesset needs to strike, the courts need to strike, the local authorities need to strike. Not only the universities need to strike but the schools as well,” he declared.
Over 1,500 faculty members at universities across the country have joined a planned academic strike slated to take place on Sunday in what will likely lead to major class disruptions. The faculty members are receiving support from just about all of the country’s main universities.
“If we can organize a tax revolt, we will organize a tax revolt. We will not be complicit in the destruction of democracy,” Lapid said at the Saturday rally.
His comments echoed sentiments expressed by both the Israel Business Forum and the Histadrut labor union on Friday, which warned that they won’t sit idly by if the government defies the High Court.
Urging the public to continue showing up to the protests, Lapid highlighted all that was at stake.
“If the streets were empty now, Einav [Zangauker] would be a thin woman alone in the great darkness, waiting for [her hostage son] Matan to return,” he said. “If the streets were empty now, Gali Baharav-Miara would have been fired, the courts would have already fallen, Israel would not have been a democracy for a long time.”
“If you hadn’t taken to the streets, we wouldn’t have the power in the Knesset to stop the draft evasion law,” he recalled. “If the streets were empty, if the square was silent, they would never have made any hostage deals.”
Taking to the stage, Democrats leader Golan, who earlier this week was knocked to the ground by police during a mass demonstration in Jerusalem, also warned that there would be a nationwide general strike unless the government obeys the High Court.
“The Jewish, democratic, Zionist and liberal State of Israel will not fall!” he told the thousands gathered in the cold night air.
“The government has launched a direct, violent and unrestrained attack: on us, on our democracy, on our values, on our future, and on the lives of our children. It will not win,” he continued, arguing that Israel has found itself in “an unprecedented historical moment” in which the government is “turning its back on the law, on the High Court of Justice and on the public.”
“A government in Israel that refuses to obey the High Court of Justice’s ruling is illegal and dangerous,” he said, stressing that Netanyahu “is not above the law.”
“And a government that refuses to obey the law is a dangerous government that must be stopped. It must be overthrown,” he said. “We are stopping the economy, the ports, transportation, the schools, academia, businesses and the streets. We are stopping the country — to save it.”
Arguing that now was “not the time for petty politics” or “personal considerations,” Golan called on Lapid and National Unity party chair Benny Gantz to “establish a single democratic front” against the government that would be able to serve as “the backbone of the new Israel.”
“Benny, Gadi [Eisenkot], Yair, let’s establish Israel’s liberal democratic bloc,” he called. “This struggle is not another protest. This is a struggle for the face of Israel. This is a struggle for our home.”
Rallies for the hostages
As the protest in Habima Square drew to an end, organizers asked participants to join a march to a rally in solidarity with the hostages at the nearby Begin Gate where attendees would merge with those coming from the rally across the street at Hostages Square.
Ahead of the Hostages Square rally, the relatives of several of the Gaza captives delivered a weekly statement to the press, slamming Netanyahu for not prioritizing the return of their loved ones over the effort to dismantle Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
The protest was the first weekly Saturday night demonstration since Netanyahu ordered the resumption of fighting in Gaza overnight Monday-Tuesday and vowed that future ceasefire negotiations would only take place under fire after Hamas rejected Israel’s proposals to extend phase one of the truce rather than proceed to the second phase.
Phase two of the multi-stage ceasefire signed in mid-January envisions the release of all remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoner releases, a permanent end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Netanyahu signed on to a framework that included these stipulations but has also insisted that Israel will not leave Gaza until Hamas has been destroyed.
Calling for the public to take to the streets amid the “emergency” that is the renewed fighting in Gaza, Yehuda Cohen, the father of hostage soldier Nimrod Cohen, declared that “after the deal blew up, Netanyahu is now blowing up the hostages in Gaza.”
“Netanyahu is killing the hostages and destroying the country,” he declared.
Yifat Calderon, the cousin of freed hostage Ofer Calderon, urged US President Donald Trump to “not fall for Netanyahu’s tricks,” and accused the premier of “waging an influence campaign of deception against the American administration.”
On Friday, US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff told the Tucker Carlson Show that Netanyahu is “well motivated” in wanting to dismantle Hamas but is going against public opinion in Israel by not prioritizing the hostages.
The rally itself was attended by a number of released hostages, including Sagui Dekel-Chen, who was freed from Hamas captivity on February 15.
He was accompanied at the rally by his wife Avital, who addressed the crowd for the first time since her husband’s release.
“Today, I am particularly moved, because, for the first time, I am standing here at a rally and speaking in front of the most important person in my life — Sagui, the love of my life.”
“For months I have spoken in front of so many people, but you, you did not manage to hear a single one of my speeches,” she said. “Today you are standing here, and seeing what the rallies for the hostages in the State of Israel look like.”
Freed hostage Gadi Mozes was also in the crowd at Hostages Square, along with Tal Kupershtein, whose son Bar Kupershtein was abducted from the Nova music festival and remains captive.
Addressing the masses at Hostages Square for the first time was also former hostage Doron Steinbrecher, who was one of the first to be released during the recent two-month ceasefire.
She told the crowd that she feels “anger toward those who think it’s okay to go back to fighting” in Gaza rather than stick to the original terms of the ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.
“How are you not listening to us? How?” she asked of them. “The feeling there, after so much time, is that you’ve been abandoned. And that’s a pain that is impossible to put into words.”
Steinbrecher said that until her release in January, she used to dream about coming to Hostages Square.
“We knew there was a square. We knew there was a place where people came every Saturday and that there was a group of people who knew there were hostages and who didn’t carry on with life as usual,” she said.
“It gives you power, a lot of power,” Steinbrecher continued. “It even makes you forget for a few moments the fear that you’ll be forgotten.”
Recalling the first weeklong truce in November 2023, Steinbrecher said that on what would become the final day of that brief ceasefire, she had been told her release was scheduled for the next day.
“I didn’t sleep the entire night from the excitement that I was coming home,” she said. “Unfortunately, the morning began with sounds of bombing, and with them, the realization that I’m not going home.”
“I come here because it’s the right thing, because the public needs to understand it’s the only thing that matters, that it can’t leave the headlines… and because I promised myself to always ask what needs to be done.”
“I have fears and pains, but they’re not what’s important,” she added. “We, the returned hostages, can’t begin rehabilitating until everyone is here. And the country can’t either.”
As hostage deal protesters departed Hostages Square to merge with the arriving anti-government protesters on Begin Road, Eyal Eshel, the father of slain surveillance solder Roni Eshel, vowed to them that he would “fight to my last day” for the formation of a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Netanyahu has rejected such a commission — Israel’s highest form of investigative body — since it must be appointed by the judiciary, which the premier claims is biased against him.
שער בגין. לא מזמן.
תראו את הכמויות הבלתי נתפסות האלה. שנתיים של עמידה נחושה מול חורבן שרק הולך ומתגבר.
נחישות.
סבלנות.
אנחנו התקווה ✊ pic.twitter.com/4ggBBkTiP1— Ran Harnevo (@harnevo) March 22, 2025
Addressing the thousands of protesters, Eshel accused the government of trying to distort the catastrophe that happened under its watch — an effort that he said was akin to denying the onslaught.
He further assailed government efforts to appoint a “political whitewashing committee,” whose members would be chosen by the Knesset, to probe the Hamas atrocities.
“Those being investigated can’t pick their own investigators,” he said. “I won’t rest until a state commission of inquiry is established.”
He said the commission would also have to probe whether the government missed chances to rescue hostages who came back dead.
“If Roni were here, she would have called out in a clear voice: Bring our brothers and sisters home now!”
Like the other two rallies, the Begin Road protest also appeared to be double its size from recent weeks, with demonstrators practically filling the stretch of the road from Kaplan to Shaul HaMelech streets.
Among those spotted at the protests was Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, on Tuesday agreed to buy cybersecurity unicorn Wiz in an all-cash deal for a staggering $32 billion. The deal was the largest-ever purchase of an Israeli tech company. A demonstrator approached Rappaport with a large placard urging him not to pay NIS 18 billion in taxes from the sale if the government does not honor Supreme Court decisions.
אסף רפפורט מנכ״ל וויז מתייצב הערב בהפגנה ובאותה הזדמנות הוא מקבל ממפגינים חרוצים ייעוץ מס כיצד יזם אחראי ודמוקרטי יפעל במדינה בה הממשלה אינה מכבדת את החוק… pic.twitter.com/geShNgZUe1
— Guy Rolnik (@grolnik) March 22, 2025
Demonstrations weren’t limited to Tel Aviv, either, with thousands taking to the streets from the north to the south of the country, including in Haifa — where some 5,000 were said to be in attendance — as well as in Beersheba and Jerusalem.
Addressing the protesters in Jerusalem was Dani Elgarat, whose brother Itzik Elgarat was killed in captivity and recently returned to Israel for burial in his home of Kibbutz Nir Oz.
He warned that the number of captives killed would rise now that fighting has resumed in Gaza.
“It’s his directive that killed them,” said Elgarat of Netanyahu. “He is directing events, he is acting against the interest of the country. He wants the captives dead, silent and not sharing details.”
Echoing the growing calls for a general strike, Elgarat urged the attorney general to prevent the premier from moving forward, and for the IDF chief of staff to stop following Netanyahu’s orders.
Speaking to Channel 12 earlier Saturday, former prime minister Ehud Barak called on Baharav-Miara, the attorney-general, to declare that Netanyahu must recuse himself.
As in Tel Aviv, the protest in Jerusalem was larger, louder, and angrier than usual, as demonstrators rallied against the government’s actions, banging on drums to the cries of “Shame!” being amplified by bullhorns.
Also speaking at the rally was Miriam Lapid, a former settler leader whose husband and son were killed by terrorists near Hebron in 1993.
She addressed Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, bemoaning what she said was “such corruption” and a “lack of morality.”
“Where are the Haredim, those with sidelocks, those who cover their hair?” she asked, calling on every ultra-Orthodox Jerusalemite to come out to the protests and “see the light.”
As the Jerusalem rally drew to a close, a few dozen protesters marched to Netanyahu’s Azza Street residence, clashing with police after breaking through crowd control barriers.
Two demonstrators were arrested and taken to the nearby police station for booking.
בני הזוג מתנאל ומיכל דויטש מתנועת @change_dir_il נעצרו בתום הרחקת המפגינים ממעון ראש הממשלה ברחוב עזה pic.twitter.com/91gnlvPF0S
— Yanal Jabarin ينال جبارين | ינאל ג׳בארין (@JbareenYanal) March 22, 2025
Earlier in the night, cops were filmed forcefully shoving marchers as they neared Paris Square, near Netanyahu’s official residence.
A police spokesman said that “some demonstrators violated public order by blocking the intersection, igniting flares, and creating a safety risk for participants and other road users.”
שוטר דוחף מפגינים רנדומליים בתוך קהל גדול של מפגינים
ירושלים 22/03/2025
צילום: @change_dir_il pic.twitter.com/l5fRq2F4KF
— אלימות ישראל (@Alimut_Israel) March 22, 2025
Back in Tel Aviv, at least three protesters were arrested after descending onto the Ayalon Highway and temporarily blocking traffic by lying down on the tarmac. They too were removed and traffic resumed after only a brief delay.
Charlie Summers and Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
