Weekly rallies to demand hostage deal after IDF recovers bodies of two captives
Families say two latest victims ‘could have been saved by an early deal’; outgoing US ambassador to address Tel Aviv demonstration
Thousands of Israelis were expected to attend rallies throughout the country Saturday night in support of a Gaza hostage deal, and some of them explicitly against the government, as ongoing negotiations in Doha drew optimism from some US officials that captives could be released before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
The urgency of efforts to secure a release was underscored by the recovery of two hostages’ bodies from Gaza this week, though the two are thought to have been killed in captivity around a year ago, in circumstances that are not yet clear.
Announcing its central weekly rally in Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostages Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said father and son Youssef and Hamza Ziyadne “were kidnapped alive and could have been saved by an early deal.”
“We must not miss the historic opportunity [to reach a deal now],” the Forum said, urging the government “to do now what is necessary and possible — reaching a comprehensive deal and bringing back all the hostages.”
Appended to the press release was a picture of the number 100 replaced by 98, referring to the number of hostages still held in Gaza — many of them no longer alive — after the recovery of the Ziyadnes’ bodies.
In tandem with the Tel Aviv rally, the Forum will hold smaller rallies in several locations including Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat and the Shaar HaNegev Junction in the south.
The Hostages Square rally is set to feature speeches from Nisan Calderon, brother of hostage Ofer Calderon; Nira Sarusi, mother of slain hostage Almog Sarusi; Yael Adar, mother of Tamir Adar, whose body was abducted after he was killed fighting terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7, 2023 Hamas onslaught; and Shira Albag, mother of Liri Albag, speaking a week after Hamas issued a video of the captive surveillance soldier.
Also speaking at the rally will be outgoing US ambassador Jack Lew, who will appear alongside German envoy Steffen Seibert and British counterpart Simon Walters.
The incoming Trump administration has tapped former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to replace the Lew, pending confirmation by the US Senate.
The president-elect this week reiterated his threat that “all hell will break loose” if Hamas fails to release the hostages before he is inaugurated. On Friday, CIA chief William Burns, a mediator in the hostage talks, said they were “quite serious,” and White House spokesman John Kirby said a deal could be reached before January 20.
Kirby blamed Hamas for the talks’ failure thus far, as have other American officials including outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Israeli critics of Benjamin Netanyahu have accused the prime minister of purposely thwarting a hostage deal to avoid ending the war in Gaza, per the demand of his far-right coalition partners.
The accusation is typically a rallying cry at the weekly families’ protest on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, a block away from the Hostages Square rally, which is usually attended by several anti-government groups.
Last Saturday, after Hamas issued the video of Liri Albag, the Begin Road protest saw a marked increase in police’s use of force, with officers making several arrests for the first time in weeks.
This week the rally will be bolstered by protesters from an earlier anti-government demonstration at the nearby Begin-Kaplan Junction. Protesters will march there from Habima Square. Among the speakers at that rally will be Limor Livnat, a former minister from Netanyahu’s Likud who has emerged as a harsh critic of the government; and legal scholar Barak Medina, a former Hebrew University rector who is representing 112 hostage family members in a High Court suit accusing the government of denying the captives basic rights by failing to secure their release.
Singer Dana Berger will also perform her aptly named 1998 hit “Waiting for Him.”
Another major anti-government protest is set to be held at Gome Junction, near the northern border town of Kiryat Shmona, many of whose residents remain displaced after being evacuated amid Hezbollah’s persistent rocket fire. The protest will be attended by Shikma Bressler, Moshe Radman Abutbul and Ami Dror, all of whom were leading activists in the 2023 protests against the judicial overhaul.
Announcing the demonstration, Dror wrote on X that the protest movement had scored a win this week by forcing Justice Minister Yariv Levin to back away from certain aspects of his overhaul, in a compromise plan announced with erstwhile government critic Gideon Sa’ar, now the foreign minister.
Dror attacked that agreement as well, sarcastically hailing the fact that “two members of the coalition got together and announced that they’d reached an agreement with themselves.” But he argued it was a “certificate of excellence for the protests,” and thanked demonstrators who have gathered daily outside Sa’ar’s Tel Aviv home.
The anti-overhaul protests, which drew tens of thousands weekly in 2023, stopped for some time after the October 7 attacks. In recent months they have renewed, but at far lower attendance than before, amid the ongoing war and a lack of clarity regarding the government’s legislative plans.
