Families mourn murdered hostages before Memorial Day; rallies urge deal; 3 arrests
Water cannon and mounted police deploy in Tel Aviv; anti-Netanyahu protests held in numerous locations, including outside his official residence in Jerusalem
Protesters rallied across Israel in tense demonstrations on Saturday evening, mourning hostages murdered on and after Hamas’s October 7 massacre as the country prepares to mark Memorial Day and Independence Day this week, and calling for the government to resign amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Police detained some 30 protesters out of dozens who managed to block Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway after a Hostages Family Forum protest and an anti-government protest converged, the large majority of whom were subsequently released. Three of those detained were arrested, the police said.
Many of the protesters were family members of hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, including Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of hostage Yoram Metzger, who was detained and later released. Law enforcement brought a bus to the scene in order to carry off detainees.
Police used water cannons and mounted officers to disperse a crowd of demonstrators gathered above the highway, outside the Azrieli Towers. The crowd chanted against the police, accusing them of acting at the behest of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Earlier in the evening, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum held its weekly rally in Tel Aviv, with a focus on families of those who were murdered in Hamas captivity.
Richelle Tzarfati, the mother of the murdered hostage Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was recovered last December, called the coming Memorial Day “the most difficult Memorial Day since the establishment of the state.”
“The State of Israel must place the return of all our [slain] hostages and victims to rest as an overarching national goal! Do not relax and do not rest until our loved ones return to their final rest in the safe bosom of their homeland,” said Tzarfati, who buried her son in Kiryat Ata after IDF troops returned his body to Israel.
The parents of slain soldier Itay Chen, who was killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7 before his body was spirited into Gaza, have not been able to lay their son to rest.
“Ahead of Memorial Day, I received many requests to participate in various memorial ceremonies. But the only ceremony that I need to partake in, and unite with the memory of my child, the state did not give me,” said his mother, Hagit Chen. “The state didn’t bring Itay back, didn’t allow me a burial.”
The hostages were kidnapped on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages, mostly civilians, amid many acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Renowned French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy also spoke at the rally, noting that Israelis would honor “those who did not fall, the hostages held in the Gaza tunnels” on Memorial Day along with fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks.
“We, the Jews, know very well that the true and truly great number, the only number that is worth anything, is one, the life of every person that was saved,” he added.
At the same time as the rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, protesters at an anti-government rally nearby listened to speeches from survivors and relatives of those who died on October 7, including former science minister Izhar Shay, whose son Yaron was killed fighting during Hamas’s unprecedented onslaught.
Addressing the government, Shay charged, “Not one of you is righteous enough to say ‘enough,’ to be loyal to the flag and to the country and not to the ruler.”
In Jerusalem, hundreds of demonstrators at the city’s weekly hostages rally chanted against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his official residence, accusing the premier and his cabinet of abandoning the hostages in Gaza.
The demonstrators sang “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, before the speakers went onstage, “in hope that in the coming week, we will receive some good news,” according to Omer, one of the protest organizers.
Elan Siegel, the daughter of hostage Keith Siegel, told the crowd that Jerusalem is her father’s favorite city and that she has avoided visiting the capital since he was kidnapped.
She recanted to the protesters what her mother Aviva Siegel, who was also taken on October 7 and released from captivity during a weeklong truce in November, said to her father before being released from Hamas captivity — “‘You will be strong for me, and I will be strong for you.”
“Dad, I really hope that you are staying strong for Mom, because she is staying strong for you. She doesn’t rest for even a moment, she travels from place to place, speaking, yelling, begging [on your behalf],” she said.
“When I thought about what I wanted to say here tonight, I tried to find a sentence with hope, faith and optimism — and I failed. I really tried, but it’s getting so hard,” she continued.
Jucha Engel, whose 18-year-old grandson Ofir Engel was also released in November, questioned how Israelis will mark Independence Day, which begins Monday evening, when hostages still remain in Hamas captivity.
“How can anyone imagine going out, celebrating independence and lighting beacons when the hostages are still dying in the tunnels?” Engel asked indignantly.
After the two speakers, an organizer from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum read off the names of hostages who were taken captive alive and since murdered.
Demonstrators then marched from Paris Square to the President’s Residence, where anti-government activists with the protest group Safeguarding our Shared Home took the reins, holding an “independence rally” modeled after the traditional ceremony at the start of Independence Day honoring outstanding citizens.
Organizers said that the citizens honored were “revealed in all their glory… in the face of the country’s lack of leadership” over the course of the war.
Each individual gave a brief speech, then unfurled an Israeli flag adorned in the yellow ribbon, a symbol for the hostages, mounting it to the podium.
Among the honorees were Noam Tibon, a retired IDF general who went out to Nahal Oz in order to rescue his son and his family during the October 7 massacre; Sarit Zussman, whose son Ben was killed in combat in Gaza; and Gil Givoni, an evacuee from Kibbutz Dan in the north.
“I call on everyone who is responsible for the failure, massacre and abandonment on October 7 — the entire leadership of the army, the entire leadership of the Shin Bet and the entire government of Israel, first and foremost Benjamin Netanyahu, to take responsibility and immediately resign from their positions,” said Tibon.
The rallies came as hopes faded after the latest round of talks for a hostage and truce deal between Israel and Hamas fizzled, with the terror group saying it has no intention of budging from a proposal already rejected by Israel.
It is believed that 128 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 12 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 36 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
