Tens of thousands of people were expected at mass rallies in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday evening amid mounting fears for the lives of the remaining hostages held for over 700 days in Hamas captivity, with one mother saying that she had received new information that her son’s life was in “immediate danger.”
While the weekly mass protest in Tel Aviv was going ahead as usual, the focus of the demonstrations shifted to Jerusalem, where a second mass protest was to be held outside of the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The addition of a Jerusalem rally comes as the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that it has “shifted the struggle” to now directing protesters to gather near the homes and offices of key decision makers to pressure them to agree to a ceasefire and hostage deal.
Ahead of the rallies, Anat Angrest, the mother of hostage Matan Angrest, said Saturday she received a phone call on Friday night informing her that her son’s life was “in immediate danger.”
In a post on X addressed to Netanyahu, Angrest did not detail where the information came from.
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“Prime Minister @Netanyahu, did you sleep last night, because I spent the 700th night [that the hostages are in captivity] in sleeplessness,” she wrote. “My Matan’s life is in immediate danger, that’s what I was informed by telephone last night.”
“So, this evening I will be at the entrance to your house, together with masses of Israeli citizens. It will be loud, just like how loud it is for Matan [in Gaza] with the sounds of explosions.”
“You won’t have any more quiet from me, it’s over,” she wrote.
IDF soldier Matan Angrest seen being kidnapped by Hamas from an IDF tank on October 7, 2023. (Screenshot/Channel 12)
Angrest, 21, an IDF soldier, was kidnapped from a tank by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. He is said to be suffering serious injuries.
Viki Cohen, the mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, issued a similar statement to that of Angrest, but did not claim new information.
She called on the public to come in droves on Saturday, telling everyone to make it out to Jerusalem to pressure the decision makers into a deal to free her son.
“Prime Minister, did you sleep last night? Because I didn’t,” Cohen wrote on social media.
“My Nimrod is in immediate danger of death because of a decision you made,” she said. “Therefore, tonight I will come to your doorstep along with tens of thousands of Israeli citizens.”
Viki Cohen, mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, at a protest tent set up outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, calling for an end to the war and the release of all the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. September 4, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The demonstrations come as Israel prepares for a major new offensive to take over Gaza City, in the northern Strip. The plan has drawn outcry from many hostage families, who fear that their loved ones could be killed, either as an accidental result of the fighting itself or intentionally by their Hamas captors, as has occurred in the past when Israeli forces drew close to locations where hostages were being held.
US President Donald Trump said Friday that some of the 20 captives believed to still be alive may have “recently died.”
Of the at least 20 hostages believed to be alive, Trump said that “there could be some that recently died, is what I’m hearing. I hope that’s wrong.”
Family members of hostages from Kibbutz Nir Oz who are held in Gaza, together with former hostages, hold a protest in Carmei Gat, marking the 700th day of captivity and calling for the release of all hostages, September 5, 2025. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
Trump’s comments on the status of the living hostages followed up on similar comments he made last month, when he caused distress among hostage families by suggesting that fewer than 20 hostages remained alive. According to official Israeli tallies, 48 hostages remain in captivity, 26 of whom have been declared dead. Authorities have expressed “grave concern” about the lives of two others.
Gal Hirsch, the government’s point man on the hostages, said at the time that Israel was not aware of any change to the number of living hostages, despite Trump’s claims. Israel has not yet commented on Trump’s latest statement.
Referring to parents of the slain hostages, who Trump described as “young beautiful dead people,” he said they “want them every bit as much — almost more — than as if their son or daughter were alive. But you have many dead people that are coming out as part of the deal.”
Before the Jerusalem rally, protesters were set to march from the Chords Bridge at the entrance to the city to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence. The main protest was then to be held at the nearby Paris Square at 9:00 p.m.
Among those set to speak in Jerusalem were Anat Agrest, Viki Cohen, Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, Yael Adar, the mother of Tamir Adar, whose body is being held in Gaza, and Liad and Nirit Baram, the parents of Staff Sergeant Neta Baram, who fell battling Hamas on Oct. 7.
The regular weekly rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv will be held at 8 p.m., and several other protests will also take place in Haifa, Carmei Gat, Be’er Sheva and other cities and towns across the country.
In Tel Aviv, the speakers will be Captivity survivor Ilana Gritzewsky, former hostage Moran Stella Yanai, Boaz Zalmanovich, the son of slain hostage Aryeh Zalmanovich, Ofir Sharabi, daughter of slain hostage Yossi Sharabi, Rivka Bohbot, wife of hostage Elkana Bohbot, and Orna Neutra, mother of US-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra, who was killed fighting on October 7, and whose body is being held in Gaza.
Hamas last month said it agreed to a framework similar to one that Jerusalem had previously accepted and pushed for, which would have seen the return of 10 living captives and the bodies of 18 slain hostages, in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners and some 1,000 Gazan detainees, amid negotiations for the return of the remaining hostages and a permanent end to the war.
An exhibit in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square marks 700 days since the October 7, 2023, massacre, on September 5, 2025. (Rei Ash/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Israel has said in recent weeks, however, it will only negotiate for the return of all the hostages and an end to the war on terms it finds acceptable, which include Hamas’s disarmament, Gaza’s demilitarization, and the institution of a new civil government in the Strip that includes neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank and is widely considered the Palestinians’ legitimate representative internationally.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 64,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques. Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 460.