Protesters block Tel Aviv highway, urging hostage deal after 4 captives declared dead

A spontaneous anti-government protest broke out on Monday night outside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv following the military’s announcement of the deaths of four hostages in Gaza, to demand an immediate deal for the release of remaining Hamas captives.

Photos and videos from the protest showed several hundred people blocking traffic on the Ayalon Highway and lighting a bonfire in the middle of the road after midnight.

Protesters also took to the streets across the country, with dozens gathering in cities including Jerusalem, Haifa, Rehovot, Pardes Hanna- Karkur and Ra’anana to call for a hostage deal, according to the anti-government Pro-Democracy Movement.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing on Monday evening that the military could not immediately confirm the circumstances of the deaths of Chaim Peri, 79, Amiram Cooper, 84, Yoram Metzger, 80, and Nadav Popplewell, 51, but would investigate their deaths fully. The announcement came after the gathering of new intelligence findings.

Activists on social media said that although the Tel Aviv protest dispersed quietly in the early hours of Tuesday, around a dozen protesters were fined by police. The police violence watchdog group Alimut Israel wrote on X that two activists who protested the fines were “violently” arrested as a result.

Following the confirmation of the hostages’ deaths, the Hostage Families Forum issued a statement expressing its “heartbreak” over the news, which it said should “shake up every citizen in the State of Israel, and elicit deep soul-searching in every leader.”

“Haim, Yoram, Amiram and Nadav were kidnapped alive, some of them were with other hostages who returned in the previous deal, and they should have come home alive to their country and their families,” the statement said, calling on the government to immediately accept a deal to bring the remaining hostages home.

Chaim Peri, Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger and Nadav Popplewell (from L to R), whose deaths in Hamas captivity were confirmed by Israel on June 3, 2024. (Courtesy)

All four of the hostages had previously been seen alive in propaganda videos filmed during their captivity in Gaza and released by Hamas.

They were kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, told demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Monday night: “Today, we received unequivocal proof — these are the results of military pressure: We get them back dead!”

לאחר ההודעה על מות החטופים יורם מצגר, חיים פרי, עמירם קופר ונדב פופלוול, המונים מפגינים בדרך בגין בתל אביב וחוסמים את הכביש. עינב צנגאוקר, אמא של מתן: ״הערב קיבלנו הוכחה חד משמעית לתוצאה של הלחץ הצבאי – אנחנו מקבלים אותם מתים!״ pic.twitter.com/4WFv87gYBp

— almog boker (@bokeralmog) June 3, 2024

Ayelet Metzger, daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, issued a public call for protesters to head to the streets after the announcement.

“The government continues to abandon the hostages, who are being murdered in captivity. The blood is on the hands of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the government. There are already hundreds of people on [Begin Street]. Take to the streets. Lives must be saved.”

A spontaneous protest calling for the government to secure a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, Rehovot, June 3, 2024. (Pro-Democracy Movement)

The protests came days after US President Joe Biden on Friday publicly announced an Israeli proposal for a phased hostage release and ceasefire deal. His announcement triggered shockwaves in the government, whose far-right parties threatened to bring down the coalition if Netanyahu moved to advance it. Netanyahu has since reportedly said there are differences between the deal that was approved and the details Biden outlined, a claim the White House has denied.

On Monday, Biden told Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, whose country has been leading mediation efforts along with the US and Egypt, that Israel was prepared to advance the hostage deal proposal it made last week and urged Doha to pressure Hamas to accept the offer.

It is believed that 120 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 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.

Demonstrators clash with police during a spontaneous protest after the IDF announcement of the deaths of four Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity, Tel Aviv, June 3, 2024. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 41 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 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.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.