Tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on Thursday, July 24, for a protest demanding an end to the Gaza war and return of the hostages. The rally featured by parents of hostages, parents of soldiers and reservists demanding that the war — on its 657th day — finally ended. Hadash and Communist Party of Israel activists take part in the rally with sings against war and occupation, in solidarity with soldiers who refuse to participate in war crimes and photos of starving children in Gaza.
At the end of the protest, hundreds of demonstrators burned tires and blocked roads in two different parts of Tel Aviv. Hundreds of protesters who left the demonstration at Habima Square blocked the intersection of Lincoln and Menachem Begin streets in Tel Aviv, burning a tire on the road and at King George Street, near the Likud headquarters. Police dispersed the protesters and arrested three activists.
Demonstrators protest with photos of starving children in Gaza clashes with police during a march against the war near the Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv, July 24, 2025 (Photo: Erik Marmor/Flash90)
Addressing the rally were several parents of conscripted combat soldiers, who have been fighting in Gaza for almost two years. “Most of them don’t know why they’re there, in a war that has gone out of all proportion, without a clear goal or destination,” one mother said. “We won’t stay silent when our sons are being broken, returning as shells of themselves, living in the shadow of trauma, if they return at all.” “Our soldiers need help. We demand an end to the war now. Free all the hostages in one go — Now! And immediately start caring for the soldiers, in body and mind.”
Ilan Garin, the father of a tank commander who was wounded in Khan Younis, said his son told him that when his forces were in Jabalia, they captured the same building four different times — each time leaving and allowing Hamas fighters to return. “At a certain point, I started to ask myself: What are we doing there? Why is it taking so long?” “Today, we’re not fighting for anything, except what interests Netanyahu — that there won’t be a commission of inquiry and that his trial will be delayed. For that, we’re sacrificing our children,” he said.
In Haifa, 26 Arabs and Jews were arrested at anti-war protest a few minutes after the demonstration began in the city’s German Colony. Officers brutally dispersed the demonstrators while tearing up signs. Adalah, the human rights group represented the detainees, said “The police claimed that the demonstration was illegal, but at the same time allowed a counter-demonstration by right-wing activists to take place at the site without any interference.” In April this year, police forcefully arrested 23 demonstrators at a similar protest in the same spot, tearing paper signs from participants’ hands as they chanted against the war.
On June 29, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) approached the Haifa Municipality and police regarding the illegal, violent, and threatening behavior by Haifa Municipality inspectors toward participants in a daily quiet protest to end the war in Gaza and for the return of the hostages. Inspectors photographed each protester separately with their personal mobile phone, without providing a justification for their actions. Through this and other actions, officers and municipality inspectors created a tense and threatening environment, and even explicitly threatened protest participants with physical violence, stating: “these people don’t understand until they get beaten up.”
Another demonstration against war and starvation in Gaza will be held today in the city of Sakhnin at 16:30, sponsored by Partnership for Peace and Hadash. All political forces in the Arab community will participate in rally.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32855
