Hostage families and their supporters were set to march in Tel Aviv and in other rallies across the country Saturday evening amid fears Israel’s decision to strike Hamas’s leadership in Doha risked diplomatic efforts to free captives held in Gaza for 708 days.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum called on supporters to gather at 7 p.m. for a march from Tel Aviv’s Savidor Station to Hostages Square for the regular weekly rally held at 8 p.m., while protests will also take place in Jerusalem, Haifa, Carmei Gat, Beersheba, and other cities and towns across the country.
“We are currently witnessing yet another deliberate attempt to sabotage a hostage return agreement,” the forum said in an English-language statement. “The occupation of Gaza and the continuation of this endless, purposeless war are bringing destruction upon the people of Israel. This is not a war to topple Hamas, but rather a war that threatens to topple Israeli society—and we will not allow this to happen!”
“After a tumultuous week and an Israeli attack on Doha’s soil, hostage families are calling for the nation of Israel to take to the streets, standing beside us and telling decision makers: the entire nation of Israel stands with the hostages! End the war and return to us the 48 hostages — now! The true image of victory will only be when everyone is home,” a separate Hebrew statement read.
Speakers at the rally will include released hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel, Sharon Aloni-Cunio, wife of hostage David Cunio and Alma Or, daughter of Dror Or, who was slain on October 7 and whose body was taken to Gaza.
Additionally, there were two speeches from Macabit Mayer, aunt of hostage brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, Dalit Oron, mother of the slain hostage Idan Shtivi, and Captain (Res.) Hillel Gardi, representative of the reservists calling for an end to the war.
Released hostage Agam Berger will perform Israel’s anthem “Hatikvah” on violin.
Freed hostage Agam Berger plays a violin that once belonged to a Jewish musician who was murdered in the Holocaust, March 8, 2025. (Screen capture: Ynet, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The families also planned to hold a selichot service, a litany of penitential and supplicant prayers held nightly in the period before the Day of Atonement, at Hostages Square at 11 p.m.
“Now more than ever, the nation is with the hostages. There will be no healing for the nation of Israel until we meet the moral and supreme mission of returning all the hostages — the dead for a proper burial in their country and the living for rehabilitation — only this will be the image of Israel’s victory. Only the people will return the hostages,” the forum wrote on X.
Last week, the main demonstration was held in Jerusalem, with a mass protest outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The families said last week 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.
On Saturday morning, dozens of protesters rallied outside the home of Education Minister Yoav Kisch, calling for a deal. They carried posters reading “he educates to abandon (our) brothers” and “educates to silence.”
Protestors calling for a hostage deal and end to the war outside the home of Education Minister Yoav Kisch in Hod Hasharon. Poster on the left reads: “Educates to abandon (our) brothers” and the poster on the right reads: “Educates to silence,” on September 13, 2025. (Yadin Giladi/pro-democracy protest groups)
The protests come amid the widening offensive in Gaza City and after Israel attempted to eliminate Hamas leaders in Qatar while they were said to be gathered to discuss the US-proposed framework for a hostage release deal earlier in the week, drawing widespread international backlash and frustrating US President Donald Trump.
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.
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.
Thousands attend a rally at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, calling for an end to the war and the release of all hostages, on September 6, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90)
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 26 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 64,600 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 465.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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