Families and protesters against the far-right government blocked the Begin-Kaplan intersection Sunday morning, October 6, calling to bring the hostages home, just ahead of the year mark of their captivity. Speaking at the protest, Gal Goren, whose father Avner was killed in the Hamas massacre and whose mother Maya Goren’s body was recovered from Gaza, spoke at the protest, addressing far-right coalition Members of Knesset who he said had been supposed to attend a later cancelled Knesset discussion on “victory”.
We have been without strategy and direction for a year. Soldiers are falling for nothing. The evacuees can’t go back to their homes in the North or South. The hostages are being murdered, and the blood is on your hands. And you dare to yap about victory?”
“It is unimaginable that tomorrow we will mark an entire year of captivity for the hostages,” the Women’s Protest who organized the protest, said. “It seems that bringing back the hostages, which was once a central goal, is not even on the cabinet’s table. Instead of bringing the hostages home in a deal and ending the war, the government and its head prefer to drag us all to political regional war,” said the movement.
Demonstrations demanding the return of hostages and against the far-right government, marking one year of the war in Gaza, take place Saturday evening across major cities and communities in Israel, in accordance with the Home Front Command’s emergency restrictions.
Hadash and Communist Party of Israel members calling for peace and ceasefire and against the war in Gaza and Lebanon outside the Israeli army headquarters in Tel Aviv, October 5, 2024. The banner reads “In Gaza and Sderot (Israeli town near the Gaza Strip) children want to live.” (Photo Zo Haderech)
Some 3,000 protesters gathered in front of Begin Gate at the Israeli army headquarters in Tel Aviv, preceded by a weekly press conference by hostages’ family members, who directed their ire at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accused him of repeatedly “torpedoing” viable hostage deals over the course of the year. Einav Zangauker, whose son Matam, 25, is held hostage, noted: “This is day 365 in which our loved ones are in captivity, in hell, in Gaza.” She added: “Why are they still there? Because of Netanyahu!” “The prime minister decided to sacrifice the lives of the hostages to preserve his power,” continued Zangauker, who has been one of the most prominent faces among those calling for a hostage deal. Zangauker responded to reports that the government has told some hostage families “that after the intensified fighting in Lebanon concludes, there will be an opportunity for an agreement to secure the release of the hostages.” “We don’t believe this government,” she said, “It’s been a year since the failure [on October 7], and today it’s clear that Netanyahu doesn’t want to return the hostages. Even if the war in the north ends, Netanyahu wants the war in the south to continue for years.”
Protests were also held in other cities across Israel, including Jerusalem, Haifa, Caesarea, Kiryat Gat, Beersheba, Rehovot, Ness Ziona, Rishon Lezion, Kfar Saba, Hadera, Ra’anana, Ramat Gan, Hod Hasharon, Kiryat Gat, Atlit, Hedera, Kfar Tavor, Modi’in. Afula, Zikhron Yaacov, Tel Yosef, Eilat and several junctions from the Negev to the Galilee.
In Jerusalem, protesters marched from Zion Square to Paris Square, behind a banner depicting slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin 23, an American-Israeli who was abducted from the Supernova music festival and killed when the occupation army closed in on the area in which they were being held, in a tunnel beneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah. “May his memory be a deal,” said the banner, a reference to both the traditional Hebrew phrase used when someone has died, “May his memory be a blessing.”
In Caesarea, protesters also demonstrated near one of Netanyahu’s private residences, as they have each week for months. Dan Halutz, a former army chief of staff who was forcibly removed from a similar protest two weeks ago, addressed the crowd, wearing a shirt that read “Elections now.” Another former chief of staff, Moshe Ya’alon, participated, and the two joined protesters in blocking a road.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32145
