‘What are you waiting for?’ Hostage families to rally, pressing Netanyahu to reach deal
Saturday speakers at Hostages Square to include family members of captives whose bodies were recovered in Gaza this week; anti-government demonstrations to be held all over country
Family members of the hostages will hold a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to swiftly reach a deal to return the captives held by Hamas and warning that time to save them is running out.
Additionally, anti-government groups will hold weekly rallies across the country, joining the call for a deal to free the hostages, and calling for the removal of the current government.
“No more excuses! The hostages are not just suffering, they’re dying! Bring all 115 hostages back now,” the Hostages Families Forum said in a statement announcing the rally to be held at 8:00 p.m. at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
The Forum said in a statement that at Saturday’s rally Gal Goren, the son of Maya Goren, whose body was recovered this week in Gaza, will speak.
Maya Ahimas, the sister of Staff Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Ahimas, whose body was also recovered this week, will speak as well.
Other speakers include Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, who has been among the leading voices in the movement calling for the release of hostages. This week, Zangauker published a video showing her son being kidnapped on October 7.
Elchanan Felhimer, chairperson of the National Union of Israeli Students, is also expected to speak at the rally.
At 7:30 p.m. at the nearby Democracy Square in Tel Aviv, there will be the weekly anti-government rally calling for early elections to be held and for a hostage deal.
According to a press release from the demonstration’s organizers, protesters will congregate at 80 different locations throughout Israel.
The Organizers said Saturday’s speakers at Democracy Square will include former Prime Minister Ehud Barak; Michel Illouz, the father of Guy Illouz, who was killed on October 7 and whose body remains in Gaza; and Knesset members Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi, previously of the Labor Party and now of Yair Golan’s newly-founded party, The Democrats.
Weekly protests in Tel Aviv renewed several months after the Hamas October 7 onslaught, which saw terrorists kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnap 251.
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF. 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.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 24 hostages have also been recovered, including three abductees mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
One more person has been listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
While the weekly demonstrations are held on Saturday nights, there have also been widespread demonstrations in the middle of the week.
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress on Wednesday, there were protests calling for a hostage deal in Washington DC, but they were overshadowed by thousands of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas demonstrators who marched through the US capital, some committing crimes.
