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Israeli Protesters Demand a Deal for the Release of Hostages
Several family members of the hostages directed their anger squarely at Mr. Netanyahu as they agitated for public action.
“Whoever accepts the murder of civilians for the Prime Minister should stay home,” Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was one of the hostages found dead over the weekend, said on the social media platform X. “Those who don’t: in memory of Carmel, take to the streets — stop the abandonment, bring the state to a halt, get a deal.”
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui is still held in Gaza, said in an interview that Mr. Netanyahu was “not only endangering our national security by refusing to complete this negotiated settlement, he’s also tearing apart this country by its seams. The country is aware that this government doesn’t exist for the service of the country but the service of itself.”
In Tel Aviv, where some of the largest crowds gathered, tensions escalated as night fell. Protesters blocked the main highway, pushed through security barricades and lit bonfires in the streets while the Israeli police carried out violent detentions and fired water cannons into the crowd. Naama Lazimi, a member of the Israeli Parliament, said on social media that the police had also thrown stun grenades at a close range, knocking her to the ground.
After hours of demonstrations, the Israeli police said it had arrested 29 people in Tel Aviv and cleared the highway. Five protesters were also arrested in Jerusalem, and two in Haifa, according to police officials.
Protesters expressed a mix of grief and rage, many carrying photos of the hostages and waving yellow ribbons in solidarity.
Shiraz Angert, a 23-year-old design student who was protesting in Jerusalem, wore a shirt bearing the photo of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the hostages whose bodies were recovered on Saturday. “It was possible to save them in a deal,” she said. “These are people who were sacrificed because we didn’t do enough.”
In Tel Aviv, Dan Levinson, a 59-year-old high school teacher, said he hoped the night’s protest would be a watershed moment.
“I feel that tonight is the last chance for a turning point — people out in the streets tonight understand that what we have not been able to achieve so far into the war, we will not be able to ever reach unless a decision is made,” he said.
“If it does not happen now,” he added, “it never will.”
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