‘Take to the streets!’: Tens of thousands rally nationwide for hostage deal
Tel Aviv rally set to feature Hamas-dictated clip of captive soldier’s plea for Netanyahu to save him
Tens of thousands of Israelis were expected at weekly demonstrations across the country Saturday night to demand a deal to release the hostages held in Gaza, with some also calling for an end to the current government and new elections.
The main rally was to once again be held on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road. Other protests will be held in dozens of cities and locations, including in Jerusalem’s Paris Square near the Prime Minister’s Residence and at the southern Shaar HaNegev Intersection.
The Tel Aviv rally was set to feature an audio clip, likely dictated by Hamas, of hostage soldier Matan Angrest, in which he urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to save him, the Hostage Families Forum said, adding that the protest’s theme will be: “The government abandoned them — take to the streets!”
Hopes for an imminent hostage deal between Israel and Hamas have seemed to fade in recent weeks, with each side entrenched in demands the other utterly rejects.
Matan’s mother Anat was to speak at the rally, as was Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker. Other speakers are former hostage Raz Ben Ami, whose husband Ohad Ben Ami is still in captivity; and Michal Lobanov, widow of Alex Lobanov, one of six hostages whose murder by Hamas two weeks ago sparked public outrage at the government’s failure to reach a deal to return the captives home.
Michal Lobanov’s speech comes a day after the family shared parts of the final video Hamas recorded of him prior to his murder. After the news of her husband’s death, Michal Lobanov refused a condolence call from Netanyahu, who protesters accuse of thwarting a hostage deal to keep his right-wing government intact.
Netanyahu on Sunday appeared to suggest that Israelis demanding a hostage deal were “falling for the trap” laid by Hamas and were at odds with the “vast majority” of the country. The premier has been accused by critics of frustrating negotiations with his new insistence that any deal see Israel retain control of the Philadelphi Corridor separating Gaza from Egypt. The demand was absent from Israel’s May 27 proposal, which forms the basis for the talks.
Last Saturday night saw a massive rally at Begin Road and nearby Kaplan Street — the first weekly rally since the recovery of the six slain hostages. Organizers claimed hundreds of thousands of people took part, though there was no outside confirmation.
Protesters have accused police of using excessive force and randomly arresting activists at the rallies. The Detainee Support Organization, which represents detained anti-government protesters, said police arrested some 100 protesters last week, all of whom courts later ordered released.
Anti-government protesters have rallied weekly on Kaplan Street — except for several weeks after October 7 — since early 2023, when the government announced its plan to overhaul the judiciary.
The overhaul, frozen since last year, appears to be making a comeback, as Justice Minister Yariv Levin is engaged in a showdown with the High Court over Levin’s refusal to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to confirm liberal judge Isaac Amit as chief justice, per the traditional seniority-based system. Levin seeks a candidate more in line with his politics, and in particular has seemed to favor conservative Yosef Elron.
The war was sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 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.
