Tami Barak raises the banner with the photograph of Itay Chen, captive in Gaza for 673 days, while repeating: “They stop the war, free the hostages and protect our soldiers, which must stop dying for nothing.” Itay Chen was friends with her children and is probably dead, but they remembered on Saturday several thousand people gathered in Tel Aviv to show their dissatisfaction with.
“It is a disgusting, disappointing and scare decision,” says Barak. “Netanyahu only wants to keep this government alive and not end up in jail and is willing to pay the price,” he adds.
The protests were held in several cities in the country at nightfall and according to the forum of hostage and missing families, they brought together tens of thousands of people. They were the first protests since the approval of the, beginning to take control of the city of Gaza. The feeling in the already called Tel Aviv Hostages Plaza on Saturday was from.
“My husband is still in Gaza, I don’t know if he suffers, if he’s alive … every hour, I’m very scared. President Trump, please help us, achieve an agreement, please bring them back home,” Sollozaba Lishay Miran-Lavi, Omri Mira’s wife, captive in the strip.
In this place, very different people congregate every Saturday: relatives of hostages, people who demand the release of the captives, but believe that the war against Hamas can follow, citizens who continue to believe in a peace agreement with the Palestinians and in the solution of two states.
This is the case of Ron Bassin, who lives in a Kibutz in Zikim, on the border with Gaza. “It seems to say this now does not make much sense, but I still believe that you have to live in peace in two states,” he says.
“Sadly, this manifestation does not represent Israel. We are a minority and that is why Netanyahu continues to execute their wishes. Within the government they support each other and there are also many people who support the prime minister,” he estimates. “It happens as with Trump. Many times we wonder, but how can the elections win? Because in the background there are many people who support it,” he adds.
Sadly, this manifestation does not represent Israel. We are a minority and that’s why Netanyahu continues to execute his wishes
Ron Bassin, Israeli protester
Beside her, Clara, his wife, affirms that the leaders of both peoples are “sick.” “It is very painful that our government cannot say that it did everything possible to free our hostages,” he laments.
“Live as a normal people”
A week ago, Hamas spread the videos of two hostages, Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, in which they are very weakened and the images have caused a shock in Israeli society and have increased the feeling of urgency.
“Our hostages are left for days, maybe weeks. And this goes before the representatives of organizations such as the International Red Cross Committee, which are there, silent. We do not ask them to release them, but that they give them at least one piece of bread and a little water. But they don’t even do that. Then they ask us to moral us,” criticized one of the protesters.
In the attacks of Hamas of October 7, 2023 in Israel, about 1,250 and 250 became hostages of the Islamist movement, which governs de facto in Gaza. Half a hundred is still on the strip, although more than half would have died.
José Hammerschlag, an 86 -year -old Argentine who has been living in Israel for more than 53 years, contemplates Tel Aviv’s protest with serenity and a smile, although he affirms that he has not known a harder period in the country in this half century. “We are forced to be here today, to say that we want to end this war, negotiate the liberation of hostages and be able to live as a normal people,” he says.
This old man believes that with Netanyahu’s decision to take a step forward and occupy Gaza everything aggravates and “there is no light at the end of the tunnel.” “We are in the hands of a government that does not listen to us. Netanyahu’s interest is personal and political, the result of the pressure of the messianic and extremist and fascist right that only dreams of seeing a Jewish settlement in Gaza, something that makes no sense,” he says, considering that the war could have ended more than a year ago thanks to an agreement.
The Netanyahu Plan, which still needs the green light of the government of the Government, would begin with the total control of Gaza City, the largest urban center in the Strip, which would imply the displacement of almost one million inhabitants, a possibility that.
The Executive has not explained how it plans to organize this immense population movement in a strip without hardly infrastructure and where a part of the population, exhausted and punished by extreme hunger already lives overcrowded in the center and south of the territory of 365 km2.
We are in the hands of a government that does not listen to us. Netanyahu’s interest is personal and political, the result of the pressure of the messianic and extremist and fascist right that only dreams of seeing a Jewish settlement in Gaza
José Hammerschlag, protester
Peace, but without Hamas
“Until they are not released, we are all hostage,” “there is no right or left, what matters are the hostages,” “we will not let them die,” the present cried. “Say enough to her war,” said the banner of a woman with photos of Netanyahu and two of her ministers of extreme right, Itamar Ben-Gvir (National Security) and Bezalel Smotrich (finance). “Don’t say ‘I’m sorry’, take them out of there,” was written in another mural, with the photo of several dozens of captives.
“I want peace, most of the Israelis want her. On October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed so many people in Israel, I thought I had been wrong for years, that the Palestinians hate us and love us dead,” recalls Tami Barak. “I have needed months to be who I was again. If we bleed, people in Gaza also bleed. Many hate us, but not all people in Gaza are terrorist, although Hamas does have to leave,” he adds.
Eitan Mor was one of the security guards of the Supernova Festival, which was held on October 7, 2023 very close to the border with Gaza. Dozens of their attendees were killed and others taken as hostages. Liat Geller does not know him, but he holds his photo in Tel Aviv’s protest, which he goes every Saturday and “adopts” for a few hours to a hostage. “It is believed to be alive,” he celebrates. “Families need us and being here is also a message to our government that we are not going to give in. This week, after Netanyahu’s ads, we are here more strongly,” he says.
According to this 47 -year -old woman, Netanyahu “opposes popular will.” “Our soldiers are in Gaza just because this government needs it. We need to take another direction and find a way to live in peace with our neighbors. People outside Israel have to know that not everyone thinks how Netanyahu,” he asks.
