Dozens of people attended a noisy fringe protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday night outside the Israeli military’s headquarters, protesting against the renewed bombardment on Gaza that they blame for the halt in the release of the estimated 130 hostages still held by Hamas.
The group gathered after the regular weekly rally demanding the release of all the hostages held by Hamas, and marched around the Israel Defense Force’s Kirya military base demanding an urgent meeting with the country’s war cabinet and pressing for a ceasefire.
Noam Shuster-Eliassi, a comedian who was part of the smaller protest, said the decision to continue the war, which restarted on Friday, was “putting these families [of hostages] in misery. What is their plan? Is it just continuing bombardment in Gaza?”
Many of those participating, she said, were anti-war activists, trying to “do everything we can to stop this criminal government”, but she added that in the current situation “the minimum we can do is be with the hostage families”.
Shuster-Eliassi argued that only political efforts and diplomatic agreements could keep people alive. She said: “The only reason why some people here have oxygen and some energy in our bodies was because of the few days’ ceasefire where we saw families reunite and we knew that people in Gaza are not being bombarded.”
It was the first time the families of some of those who had been abducted had come together with other activists. Those speaking included Yael Adar, whose 38-year-old son, Tamir, remains held by Hamas, although her 85-year-old mother-in-law, Yaffa, was released more than a week ago.
The follow-on protest ended abruptly when sirens warned of a rocket attack from Gaza aimed at the Tel Aviv area, forcing demonstrators to shelter under a bridge amid distant bangs from interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.
Another anti-government protest took place at Caesarea, where Benjamin Netanyahu’s estate is located. Eran Litman, the father of Oriya, who was murdered at the Nova music festival, was among those calling for his resignation.
Litman blamed the Israeli prime minister for the failures that led to Hamas’s unexpected attack on 7 October that led to the deaths of 1,200 people in Israel. “The hands of the Israeli government, and its leader, are covered in blood,” he said, according to Haaretz.
The anti-government demonstrations reflect a more sombre mood among hostage families. The resumption of hostilities on Friday morning abruptly cut off the prospect of further releases. A seven-day truce had allowed for the release of 81 Israeli women and children and 24 foreign nationals from Gaza, while 240 Palestinians were released from Israeli jails.
Earlier, the main Saturday night vigil, attended by thousands of people outside Tel Aviv’s Museum of Art, reflected some of the change in mood. Hadas Calderon, whose children Sahar, 16, and Erez, 12, were recently released while their father, Ofer, remains in captivity, said she had mixed emotions as she spoke at the rally.
Calderon said that for her “a miracle happened and we hope a miracle happens for everyone”, and said for her children, being taken hostage was “a Fortnite [video] game that became reality”. She added that they had no idea their parents were alive until they were released.
She said “don’t forget the men”, a refrain frequently heard at the event, and said that while Israeli’s leaders had been brave to agree a truce to allow people to be released “we can’t talk about security for the state if there are hostages in Gaza”, arguing it was a problem urgently needing to be solved.
The main Hostages and Missing Families Forum has been careful not to politicise its response to the crisis, focusing instead on keeping the issue prominent with repeated interventions from affected families without spelling out too precisely how releasing the hostages is best achieved.
Nevertheless, the forum demanded an urgent meeting with Israel’s security cabinet, and said on Saturday that its request had not been granted. “We hope that this time we will not have to mobilise the entire nation of Israel with us again, or take more extreme measures, in order for such a meeting to be coordinated,” it said.
Meanwhile, those publicly calling for an end to the war in Gaza remain in a small minority amid intense condemnation of the Hamas attack on 7 October. “It’s difficult being Israeli. It’s difficult to be Jewish. It’s difficult to be a leftist,” Shuster-Eliassi said. “It’s difficult to be a logical person with humanity and conscience at the moment.”
