Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered outside the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday, renewing their demands for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation and a ceasefire in Gaza that would allow the return of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led offensive.
One protester held up a sign calling Netanyahu an “enemy of Israel”, while others lay in the street covered in fake blood and bandages.
Relatives and families of the hostages have been taking to the streets every week since October to pressure the government to return their loved ones. A temporary ceasefire in November saw some hostages released and others rescued, but more than 100 remain in Gaza. It is unclear how many are still alive.
Noa al-Ghamani, a hostage who was rescued on June 8, called for the release of the remaining captives in a video for the Forum of Hostages and Missing Families, which represents the families of hostages held in Gaza.
“We have to do everything we can to bring them home,” Al-Ghamani said in the video, after she was kidnapped along with her partner, Abinatan Oar, on October 7 and taken to Gaza. Still ongoing.
Efrat Yahalomi, the sister of Ohad Yahalomi, the French-Israeli hostage taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz, said it was “incredibly painful” to know that Israeli hostages were suffering in captivity.
“It’s been almost nine months and I still stand here with a heavy heart, while Ohad is still not here,” she said in a statement released by the forum.
