Around twenty family members of hostages held in Gaza launched a protest flotilla on Thursday, August 7, from Ashkelon toward the maritime border with the Gaza Strip, calling for the immediate release of their loved ones and stop endless war. The protest comes ahead of a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet today evening at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, where discussions will focus on the occupation of Gaza.
Police officers against families of hostages and activists against war protest outside army’s headquarters base in Tel Aviv, August 6, 2025 (Photo: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Earlier, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker calls for Israelis to protest outside a cabinet meeting scheduled for tonight where the country’s political leaders are expected to approve a plan expanding genocide war in the Strip. Einav Zangauker says on X that far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised her he would pursue a deal to free the hostages, “but took advantage of my pain, of the families, of the whole hurt nation and killed the deal.” “Netanyahu and his partners are about to condemn Matan to death,” she adds in a video statement, calling for protesters to “flood the streets of the nation starting tonight.” Protests against the war are scheduled tonight in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Herzliya, Haifa, Karkur junction, Hod Hasharon, Rosh HaAyin, Kfar Sava, Gome junction, Yesod Hama’ala, Rosh Pina, Beit Hashita, Horfish, Tzemach Yannai junction and other localities.
On Wednesday evening, physical confrontations have taken place outside Israel’s Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv between police officers and family members of hostages during a rally calling for their release, as the far-right government appears on the verge of escalating its genocidal war to full occupation of the besieged enclave.
Protesters surrounding the Kirya, military headquarters, demanded that the government not go ahead with its plan, as they were pushed back by police. Protesters, including the father of captive Guy Illouz, tried to force their way into the entrance of military headquarters. The protesters marched through the city and passed the gates of the Kirya military compound in Tel Aviv.
According to Gideon Levy in Haaretz, “For the first time in Israel’s history, the security cabinet is slated to make a decision on annihilation on Thursday. Netanyahu’s plan to occupy the Gaza Strip, which clearly no one in the security cabinet will challenge, means confirming the killing of thousands of people, demolishing the living conditions of more than two million walking dead and carrying out the final destruction of a busy, crowded strip of land where people once lived, but will no longer.”
“If this plan is implemented in full, Thursday will be remembered as the day in which the annihilation order was issued. People may learn about this day in history class, just as they learn other dates on which a people’s fate was decided. The names of the decision makers will go down in disgrace,” he wrote.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32902
