Tens of hundreds of protesters gathered close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Saturday night for a rally organized by households of hostages held in Gaza, who charged that the premier was willingly sacrificing their family members in a bid to cling to energy.
The mass demonstration — held within the capital, not like the same old Tel Aviv in most weekly rallies — was organized within the shadow of the Israel Protection Forces’ plan to take over Gaza Metropolis, within the north of the Strip, the place among the remaining 48 hostages are believed to be held.
The army is forging forward with the operation, on the orders of the federal government, regardless of widely-reported opposition from senior protection officers, who’ve assessed that the marketing campaign might additional endanger the lives of the hostages.
Protesters set out from the Chords Bridge, close to the doorway to Jerusalem, towards Netanyahu’s residence on Azza Avenue, holding a banner studying, “Authorities of the shadow of dying,” and chanting: “Why are they nonetheless in Gaza?”
As they walked, Ora Rubinstein, the aunt of Hamas hostage Bar Kuperstein, addressed Netanyahu straight, saying they have been “not anarchists, we aren’t right-wingers, not left-wingers — we’re households, and our demand is that you simply return all of them [the hostages], now.”
Police flanked the marchers, and the street was closed for the procession. Officers had introduced a water cannon to an intersection that the protesters handed by way of, however didn’t use it.
‘If one thing occurs, you’ll pay’
Lots of individuals awaited the marchers at Paris Sq., lower than a kilometer (mile) from Netanyahu’s dwelling, for the primary protest of the night.
There, the moms of kidnapped IDF troopers Matan Angrest and Nimrod Cohen addressed the group.
On the prime of the handle, Anat Angrest tore up her ready remarks and as a substitute advised the group that protection officers had just lately contacted her to clarify the dangers related to the expanded IDF operation in Gaza Metropolis.
1000’s attend a rally at Hostage Sq. in Tel Aviv, calling for an finish to the struggle and the discharge of all hostages, on September 6, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90)
She mentioned that she was knowledgeable that “the danger has already elevated in latest days because of the IDF’s actions previous to the maneuver,” and was growing with every passing day.
“The prime minister determined to implement the ‘Hannibal Protocol’ on my Matan, on all of the hostages,” mentioned Angrest. The controversial Hannibal Protocol is a army order formally repealed in 2016 that granted troops broad permission to do no matter was obligatory to stop the kidnapping of a fellow soldier, together with actions that will doubtlessly put their lives in danger.
“Mr. Prime Minister, as a father to kids, you’re separating me from Matan, Matan from his freedom, his life from his dying!” cried Angrest.
“This isn’t a risk, Mr. Prime Minister. If one thing occurs, you’ll pay for it — it is a mom’s phrase,” she warned Netanyahu.
Vicky Cohen, Nimrod’s mom, equally cautioned the premier that if something occurred to her captive son, she would “just be sure you don’t have a minute of peace for the remainder of your life.”
“Isn’t it sufficient for us that 42 hostages have already been murdered in captivity?” she mentioned. “And what’s the protection minister [Israel Katz], my Nimrod’s commander-in-chief, doing? Posting a one-sentence tweet on Twitter [X]: ‘We’ve began’” — referring to a tweet by Katz feting a strike on a Gaza Metropolis high-rise constructing.
“What precisely did you begin?” inquired Cohen. “Including one other risk to the lives of the hostages who’re barely dwelling? What precisely are you happy with?”
Anat Angrest (L) and Vicky Cohen, the moms of hostage troopers Matan Angrest and Nimrod Cohen, converse at a rally close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem dwelling, on September 6, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
She famous that there was “a full deal on the desk” that will safe the discharge of each one of many 48 hostages, however that Netanyahu was refusing to log out on it.
When “Hamas demanded a partial deal, he [Netanyahu] demanded a full deal,” Cohen mentioned, “and when Hamas agreed to a full deal, he calls for a partial one and ramps up this pointless and political struggle.”
In latest weeks, the federal government has adopted the place that it’ll solely conform to a deal that frees all hostages, which might imply ending the struggle, whereas Hamas has mentioned it could conform to a phased framework similar to one beforehand accepted by Israel.
“My son can return dwelling tomorrow morning alive and the prime minister is undermining this,” Cohen declared, as the group booed Netanyahu. “My youngster won’t be sacrificed on the altar of politics.”
“If a hair on my Nimrod’s head is harmed, I’ll be sure to don’t have a minute of peace for the remainder of your life,” she vowed. “My delicate boy… I do not know how he’s coping within the hellfire of Gaza.”
1000’s attend a protest in Jerusalem calling for an finish to the struggle and the discharge of all hostages from Hamas captivity on September 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)
A legacy of ‘bloodbath and failure’
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is held hostage in Gaza, took to the stage as nicely, the place she argued that Netanyahu was the worst enemy that the Jewish individuals have encountered.
“The Jewish individuals have had many persecutors all through historical past,” mentioned Zangauker. “Pharaoh, Haman, they carried out pogroms in opposition to us — however you, Benjamin Netanyahu, you rise above all of them.”
“Seven-hundred-and-one days since Matan was kidnapped from his mattress in Kibbutz Nir Oz straight into the jaws of Hamas,” she lamented, reflecting on the journey she has been on since, in her relentless combat to get him again.
“What didn’t I do?” she requested rhetorically. “I sat quietly for 3 months as a result of they advised us to close up, they used scare techniques, ‘be quiet, will probably be over quickly.’ It didn’t assist.”
“I sat at Start Gate in Tel Aviv along with the opposite households of the hostages. We demanded and shouted, ‘Deliver them dwelling now.’ We marched within the scorching solar to Jerusalem, climbed on cages, gave media interviews, spoke overseas, we did every thing — they usually didn’t come again.”
Netanyahu, she charged, is “the daddy of the partial offers and ‘selektzia‘ doctrine,” — referring to the Nazis’ observe of separating members of the family from one another and sending some to their instant dying — “the daddy of the subversion, division and incitement doctrine, the daddy of the abandonment and sacrifice doctrine.”
She asserted that the premier’s loyalists have been “leaking labeled paperwork in violation of the regulation, inciting in opposition to us, in opposition to the residents of the nation, burning each good a part of the nation, and of democracy, and for what? In order that the October 7 bloodbath won’t follow him.”
“Netanyahu, your solely legacy is the bloodbath and failure of October 7,” Zangauker advised the premier. “However your lies won’t cease us.”
Einav Zangauker, the mom of Hamas hostage Matan Zangauker, speaks at a rally close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem dwelling, on September 6, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
At one level, elements of the huge crowd started to chant in opposition to Netanyahu, calling him a “traitor,” earlier than Zangauker picked her speech again up.
“My Matan is doing every thing he can to outlive within the Hamas tunnels; he’s your legacy of abandonment,” she shouted. “Why haven’t you replied to Hamas’s response for 3 weeks? Why are you sending [Strategic Affairs Minister Ron] Dermer to mislead [US] President [Donald] Trump?”
Earlier within the night, Matan Zangauker’s companion, Ilana Gritzewsky, herself a former hostage, spoke about his absence at a weekly rally in Hostages Sq., in Tel Aviv.
“Matan, I miss you,” she mentioned frankly. “I miss our cream pasta, I miss walks with our canine, our laughter, Friday evening dinners and hanging out collectively, getting up early within the morning and ending every day with a hug. I miss my finest buddy.”
She mentioned she “nonetheless lives in captivity,” and might envision Matan languishing away.
“I see him hungry, thirsty, weak,” she mentioned. “I’m wondering if he remembers what I sound, appear and feel like.”
Gritzewsky accused Netanyahu of prolonging the hostages’ captivity for political causes.
“Whereas Matan and the hostages waste away at nighttime, the prime minister hangs on to his seat,” she mentioned. “The enemy kidnapped us, however the ones holding us there for 701 further days are you, the decision-makers.”
“You didn’t do every thing. You didn’t do sufficient, as a result of had you finished, they might have already been right here,” she mentioned, including that “the federal government has betrayed its residents.”
Kin and supporters of hostages held within the Gaza Strip attend a rally demanding their launch from Hamas captivity and calling for an finish to the struggle, in Jerusalem, September 6, 2025. (AP/Mahmoud Illean)
1000’s packed into Hostages Sq. and the adjoining Shaul HaMelech Highway for the weekly rally, which occurred earlier than the evening’s important protest in Jerusalem, and to take heed to former hostages and the households of these nonetheless in Gaza.
In the course of the sq., rally-goers unfurled a big banner addressed to Trump, which appealed for him to “Save the hostages now!”
The kinfolk of slain hostages additionally spoke on the rally, expressing anger over the deliberate takeover of Gaza Metropolis, and recounting their family members’ last moments.
“The cupboard has determined to take over Gaza… with out planning keep away from murdering the hostages,” mentioned Orna Neutra, the mom of slain captive soldier Omer Neutra. “Whoever doesn’t give solutions right this moment will bear an everlasting mark of disgrace.”
Talking after Neutra, Boaz Zalmanovich advised the protesters that he just lately noticed shut footage of his 86-year-old father, slain hostage Aryeh Zalmanovich, being pushed to Gaza by his Hamas captors throughout the terror onslaught of October 7, 2023.
“Two weeks in the past, I noticed a video filmed by one of many murderers on that horrible day that has gone on for 701 days already,” he mentioned. “The recording is from up shut, each element is seen — the bandage on my dad’s head protecting the wound that opened up… the blood dripping on his beard, his frightened eyes watching with horror, and his weak fingers making an attempt to hold on to the again of the scoundrel sitting in entrance of him.”
“My father was deserted on the morning of October 7 and suffered horribly for 40 days earlier than he died,” mentioned Zalmanovich. “And the Israeli authorities, which prioritizes land over individuals, which prioritizes vengeance over mercy, didn’t come to the rescue.”
“For 701 days, the abandonment monster has eaten away at every thing right here,” he says. “However the merciless authorities chooses to maintain bloodletting as a substitute of ending the struggle and returning the captives.”
1000’s attend a protest march in Jerusalem calling for an finish to the struggle and the discharge of all hostages, September 6, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
Ofir Sharabi, the daughter of slain captive Yossi Sharabi, expressed concern that the brand new Gaza Metropolis offensive would make her father’s physique and the stays of different slain captives irretrievable.
In February 2024, the IDF mentioned Sharabi was possible inadvertently killed because of an Israeli strike.
“My father was murdered due to the army stress that was delivered to bear close to the house the place he was being held — however we have to beg for him to be introduced again for burial?” she mentioned. “The choice to beat Gaza Metropolis means the homicide and disappearance of the hostages.”
The Hostages Sq. rally ended with Ofir’s sister Yuval singing Hatikva, the nationwide anthem.
Whereas in earlier weeks, rallygoers would usually file out of Hostages Sq. to hitch up with the overtly political anti-government hostage deal protest on close by Start Avenue, the hostages’ households who organized these protests introduced final month that they might cease them in the meanwhile, with the intention to consolidate the marketing campaign for the captives’ launch.
This meant that Start Highway was all however empty apart from a number of dozen left-wing protesters who beforehand stood on the fringes of the anti-government rally, bearing indicators and chanting slogans accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
About 20 law enforcement officials have been stationed subsequent to them, they usually escorted away a small band of right-wing youth who walked by, cursing on the protesters.
Fears of hostages being moved into Gaza Metropolis
Even because the households of the hostages begged for his or her family members to be stored secure within the face of the looming IDF offensive in Gaza Metropolis, Channel 12 information reported on Saturday evening that the households of Alon Ohel and Man Gilboa-Dalal, who seem in a video Hamas released Friday, consider the 2 have been just lately moved there, primarily based on info from former hostages who have been held with them.
An image reveals a view of a makeshift displacement camp on the Yarmuk Sports activities Stadium, as soon as a soccer enviornment, as smoke billows throughout Israeli strikes on Gaza Metropolis on September 4, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
In accordance with the report, there are considerations that different hostages have additionally been moved to Gaza Metropolis, ostensibly to place them in hurt’s means or dissuade Israel from going forward with the plan.
In accordance with the channel, IDF chief Eyal Zamir, regardless of his opposition to the operation, has decided the order to beat the town is lawful and due to this fact won’t resist the political determination.
Terror teams within the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, together with 47 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They embody the our bodies of a minimum of 26 confirmed useless by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave considerations for the well-being of two others, Israeli officers have mentioned. Hamas can be holding the physique of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
Hamas launched 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, 5 troopers, and 5 Thai nationals — and the our bodies of eight slain Israeli captives throughout a ceasefire between January and March, and one extra hostage, a twin American-Israeli citizen, in Might as a “gesture” to america. The fear group freed 105 civilians throughout a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and 4 hostages have been launched earlier than that within the early weeks of the struggle. In alternate, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, safety prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained throughout the struggle.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the our bodies of 51 have additionally been recovered, together with three mistakenly killed by the Israeli army as they tried to flee their captors, and the physique of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
