Israelis Halt Activities in Second Major Hostage Strike To Protest in Support of Deal

At least 300,000 demonstrators took to the streets in Tel Aviv alone Tuesday after 690 days of war in support of a hostage release deal that would free the 50 remaining hostages still held in Gaza. The protests began at 6:29 am, the same time Hamas launched their attack, protesters gathered across Tel Aviv and the country, including the US Consulate in Tel Aviv and ministers houses.

They also blocked and halted highways and roads, including Route 1 between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and the Route 2 Coastal Highway, starting at around 7:00 am, and tires were set on fire. The Israel Police asserted that the freedom of protest and expression does not constitute harming others freedom of movement.

It was the second major day of protests in the past two weeks. Last Sunday, more than a million Israelis took to the streets, with some 500,000 in Tel Aviv alone, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. 

As the Prime Minister convened his cabinet, protesters began to gather outside and marched, demanding the forum accept a deal that Hamas said it accepted last week. The leaders of that protest, which were members of the Hashomer Hatzair socialist youth movement, held a banner that read: “We are one step away from a complete torpedoing,” referring to fears that the government will ignore a prospective hostage deal. The security cabinet concluded its meeting without a vote or discussion on the proposed agreement.

In Tel Aviv, protesters marched from the Savidor Train Station in the central part of the city to Hostages Square, where family members of the hostages addressed the hundreds of thousands of people who gathered. Ofir Braslavski, father of hostage Rom Braslavski, said that he “no longer trusts the prime minister and the government” after nearly two years without the return of his son, who he said was “dying” and that the only person he trusted was IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.

Noam Peri, the daughter of former hostage Chaim Peri, who was murdered in captivity and later recovered, appealed to US President Donald Trump in English, urging him to “look at all this crowd… and at the pictures from the streets of Israel.” 

“The people of Israel are voting with their feet, the nation wants this war to end and the hostages brought home,” she said. “For my father, it is too late, but you can still save the other hostages and be remembered as the president who made history.”

Total, 205 of the 251 hostages that were abducted on October 7 have been returned, with 148 hostages released or rescued alive, and an additional 57 bodies recovered. Of the 50 hostages who remain in Gaza, Israel presumes that less than 20 are alive, with the rest being confirmed or presumed dead.