A million Israelis demonstrate as Netanyahu resists hostage-ceasefire deal

The competing pressures — Hamas’s conditional signals, families’ pleas for an immediate deal, the government’s insistence on total military defeat, and international calls for decisive action — leave Israel at a critical juncture.

In one of the largest demonstrations since the Gaza war erupted nearly two years ago, Israel was brought to a standstill on Sunday as protesters blocked major roads, shut businesses, and staged mass rallies in cities nationwide.

Organisers said one million Israelis took part in demonstrations across the entire country, with more than 500,000 in Tel Aviv alone.

A nationwide grassroots strike swelled throughout the day, with demonstrators demanding the government secure the release of the hostages still held in Gaza. Crowds gathered outside ministers’ homes, while hundreds of municipalities, universities, businesses and technology firms announced they were joining the strike or allowing staff to take part. The Histadrut, Israel’s central labour union, declined to formally participate, but its leader Arnon Bar-David visited Hostages’ Square in Tel Aviv to express solidarity.

The day of action began at 6:29am — the exact time Hamas launched its deadly assault on 7 October 2023 — and organisers claimed more than one million people joined hundreds of demonstrations across the country.

By afternoon, police reported 38 arrests as activists clashed with officers trying to reopen blocked streets. Outside Jerusalem, riot police used a water cannon to disperse demonstrators who had occupied a tunnel on Route 16 leading to the capital. In Tel Aviv, 11 people were arrested after police accused them of “violating public order and significantly impairing freedom of movement.”

In the morning, relatives of hostages, alongside the October Council representing bereaved families, held a press conference in Tel Aviv to announce an “emergency break” until the hostages are released.

“Today, we stop everything to save the lives of 50 hostages and soldiers. Today, we stop everything to remember the supreme value of the sanctity of life,” said Anat Engrest, whose son Matan is held in Gaza.

The day’s peak came in the evening at Hostages’ Square in Tel Aviv, now the symbolic heart of the hostage movement. Organisers estimated more than 300,000 protesters packed the square and surrounding streets, though police issued no official figures. After speeches, hundreds marched to the nearby Likud headquarters, where they lit a bonfire and clashed with police. Officers prevented protesters from reaching the entrance of the Metzudat Ze’ev building. Videos posted online showed police scuffling with demonstrators who beat drums and chanted anti-government slogans.

At the start of the main rally at Hostages’ Square, organisers released a video clip of captive Matan Zangauker. The video, said to have been recorded months earlier in Gaza, was recently obtained by the Israeli military and released by his mother, Einav, as part of the intensifying campaign to free the hostages.

In the footage, Zangauker, with a shaved head, addresses his sisters and partner, Natali, who was kidnapped with him from Kibbutz Nir Oz and released after 50 days in November 2023. “Tatu (Natali), Shani, Ilana – I miss you, and God willing, we’ll meet soon. To all my acquaintances, all my friends – go out and make noise like only you know how,” he says.

After the video was screened, Einav Zangauker addressed the crowd: “Your quiet gaze at the end of the video accompanies me as I toss and turn at night. My soul burns with longing; it burns that I cannot hug you, hear you, and hold you.”

She criticised the government’s handling of the crisis, declaring: “They have turned the most just war into a futile war. If Netanyahu wants an agreement, let him put a comprehensive proposal on the table and agree to it; otherwise, he is simply lying.”

Former hostage Eli Sharabi, who will visit Australia shortly as a guest of JNF, said that witnessing demonstrations from captivity was “worth ten meals”. Sharabi’s wife, Lianne, and their daughters Noiya and Yahel were murdered on 7 October.

Released in an emaciated condition, Sharabi told Channel 12 that the knowledge of public support gave him and fellow hostages strength. “It warms the heart. It’s amazing. I wasn’t exposed to any media for 16 months, but when I came out and they showed me what people in Israel had done for the hostages and their families, it warmed my heart,” he said.

Sharabi recalled how his captors manipulated him by claiming his wife and daughters had spoken at rallies, yet even this falsehood gave him strength. “Just the knowledge that someone was fighting for me outside gave us tremendous strength. That strength was worth ten meals. Ten meals of a quarter of pita bread a day.”

Netanyahu said in a cabinet meeting on Sunday morning that the protests “guarantee that the atrocities of October 7 will be repeated” and make hostage release less likely. He warned that the rallies ensured IDF soldiers “will have to keep fighting again and again in a forever war.”

“To advance the release of the hostages and guarantee Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel, the job must be finished and Hamas defeated,” he said.

Government talking points circulated to ministers and journalists claimed protests had always hardened Hamas’ positions, delaying potential deals. Haaretz commentator Yossi Verter described this assertion as “an utter lie,” arguing Hamas had become entrenched primarily because of the success of its so-called “famine campaign” and the wave of unprecedented international criticism after Israel decided to occupy Gaza City.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, followed Netanyahu’s ‘talking points’ and posted on X that Israel was waking up to “an evil, damaging campaign that plays into Hamas’ hands and buries the hostages in the tunnels.” He said the protests also sought to force Israel “to surrender to its enemies and endanger the state’s security.”

Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky, under investigation for rape allegations, labelled the protests “riots supporting Hamas.” Culture Minister Miki Zohar said the disruption to daily life was “a reward for the enemy, who sees the pictures and revels in joy.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir accused demonstrators of encouraging draft refusal and weakening Israel “just as before October 7,” while Transport Minister Miri Regev accused them of “burning roads and damaging infrastructure.” Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu claimed there was “a yawning gap between grieving families, whose pain clouds their judgment, and cynical anarchists exploiting that pain.”

Despite weekly protests, the last time such numbers filled the streets was in September 2024, after the murder of six hostages by Hamas in Rafah, Amir Tibon noted in Haaretz . Dubbed “The Beautiful Six,” they were executed as Israeli soldiers advanced on the tunnel where they were being held.

Among them was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents became global figures in the hostage campaign. At his funeral, his father Jon adapted the traditional condolence “May their memory be a blessing” into “May your memory be a revolution.” The phrase remains a common protest slogan, often modified to “May your memory be a deal.”

For many Israelis, the deaths of The Beautiful Six exposed what they saw as Netanyahu’s greatest falsehood: that “only military pressure on Hamas will return the hostages.” In Rafah, military pressure directly contributed to their deaths. A negotiated deal, reached in time, could have saved them.

On Sunday, protesters recalled those deaths as they warned against Netanyahu’s reported plan to expand the war into areas where hostages are believed to be held. Tibon noted that this time, Israelis were acting before another calamity struck, not after.

The real question is what will happen on Monday. Will the momentum from this protest spill into more action, or will it be a one-time spectacle? "The lives of our hostages depend on that question,” Tibon concludes.

READ MORE

Hundreds of thousands demonstrate in Tel Aviv at end of nationwide day of hostage protests (Times of Israel)

US officials impressed by massive rally for hostages in Tel Aviv; images sent to Trump (Ynetnews)

As Israelis pleaded for the Gaza hostages, Netanyahu smeared protesters as Hamas sympathizers (Yossi Verter, Haaretz)

Israel's largest protest in over a year was a clear warning to Netanyahu. Will it matter? (Amir Tibon, Haaretz)

Hamas accepts Arab-mediated ceasefire deal as thousands flee Gaza City (The Age)