Rallies for hostages and against renewed judicial overhaul efforts begin in Tel Aviv
Demonstrators demand Israel extend ceasefire to save more captives; anti-overhaul movement reawakened by justice minister’s plan to oust attorney general
Protests demanding that Israel maintain the ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, as well as against renewed government efforts to curtail the powers of the judiciary, were held in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.
With the fate of the ceasefire and the remaining 59 hostages in doubt, a rally began at Hostages Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum at 8 p.m. To honor International Women’s Day, the weekly rally was to be headlined by mostly female speakers, all of whom are captivity survivors or have loved ones still held hostage.
The speakers included Karina Ariev, a surveillance soldier who was released from captivity in January, and Ilana Gritzewsky, who was released from captivity in 2023 and whose boyfriend, Matan Zangauker, remains in Gaza.
Other speakers included Idit Ohel, mother of hostage Alon Ohel; Lishay Miran-Lavi, wife of hostage Omri Miran; Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest; Yifat Hayman, mother of the late hostage Inbar Hayman; Nadav Rudaeff, son of the late hostage Lior Rudaeff; and Dvir Kupershtein, brother of hostage Bar Kupershtein.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which organizes the rallies, said demonstrations would be held at dozens of locations throughout the country, with the main rallies taking place in Tel Aviv, Sha’ar HaNegev Junction in the south and Jerusalem.
“This Saturday evening, we will demand the return of all 59 hostages. The window of opportunity is closing fast — we won’t get another chance,” the group said in a statement.
“If no agreement is reached in the coming days, we’re effectively condemning the remaining hostages to death, and those who have already died may never be found or brought home.”
Meanwhile, leaders of the protest movement against the government’s judicial overhaul said they’d march in Tel Aviv after Justice Minister Yariv Levin began the process of removing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from her post. Critics of Baharav-Miara have long asserted she regularly seeks to thwart the government, while supporters view her as one of the last gatekeepers against extreme government initiatives and say she is acting against its efforts to subvert the rule of law and weaken Israeli democracy.
The anti-overhaul protest movement has been largely dormant since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, and with the government having frozen its efforts to curb the powers of the judicial system, but Levin and other ministers have recently stepped up efforts to renew their push to remake the system, reawakening the public outcry.
Saturday’s rally were to focus both on the judicial overhaul and the plight of the hostages.
“Just as we stopped the coup in 2023 and just as we enlisted in the military and reserves and stopped the collapse of the state in 2024, so in 2025 we will prevent destruction again and stop the coup and the abandonment of the hostages,” protest leaders said in a statement.
The protest leaders gathered at 6:45 p.m. at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square and then marched to join the hostages’ families’ protest outside the IDF Headquarters.
The march was to included prominent figures from the anti-overhaul protests, including Shikma Bressler, MK Efrat Rayten of The Democrats party, Moshe Radman Abutbul and Yaya Fink.
מחר 18:45 כיכר הבימה
זה הזמן להתייצב! pic.twitter.com/Xd5oxNd8Ew— איל נוה – Eyal Naveh (@eyalnaveh1) March 7, 2025
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 59 hostages.
