Tens of thousands gathered outside the Knesset for a rally supporting the hostages Sunday night, exactly six months after they were kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza on October 7.
“Half a year that the 133 hostages are being tortured day in and day out, every minute, in Hamas captivity,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The forum also addressed the IDF pullout of southern Gaza on Sunday, saying that “the withdrawal of forces should be the first stage in a hostage deal. Now, we must not abandon the hostages in Gaza.”
Released hostage Itay Regev spoke at the rally, talking about the emotional torture faced by the hostages, and about how Hamas would tell them that no one cared about bringing them home.
“I just want to ask our leaders, is it true? Have you given up on them?” he asked. “Are the terrorists correct? I would like an answer, but before the [Knesset] recess if possible,” he said, referencing the parliamentary break that began Sunday.
Released hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog also spoke, recalling her time in captivity. “I used to think a lot about who the people fighting for me were, who is dealing with my release, and you are those people, a huge part of them,” she told the crowd.
She addressed the hostages still in Gaza telling them, “I hope you aren’t counting the days, I hope you don’t know how long it has been and that you don’t know what a catastrophe it is, and that you don’t know what [those in Israel] are talking about and busy with, while you are fighting for your lives.
Family members of hostages mark six months
“Today we mark six months, a peak, and today we shake the ground in this country,” she said. “But I am thinking about tomorrow. What will we do tomorrow to shout their pain?”
Hagit Chen, the mother of Itay Chen whose body is held hostage in Gaza, was among the many family members of hostages who spoke at the rally.
“The State of Israel did not defend you, Itay,” she said, addressing her son. The state “did not expect the disaster, and when it happened, did not send you backup, and did not save you. And still it is not saving you. How can it be that after half a year, they have not brought you back? That they have abandoned you like this? That they have abandoned me like this? A mother, who sent her son to the army with so much pride,” she said.
“I turn to the IDF chief of staff, Itay’s commander, who commanded him to battle: When are you bringing back my son?! Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when will I be able to sit shivah for Itay?” she said, referring to the traditional week-long mourning period.
Crowds at the rally carried signs with the faces of hostages and others shaped like yellow hands that said “bring them home now.”
Protesters chanted, “they are running out of time, bring them all back,” along with calls to bring back “everyone, now.”
Around 1,000 protesters also gathered in Vienna for a march for the hostages, organized by the Israeli Community Europe (ICE), organizers said. At the end of the march, participants held a ceremony and read testimonies from hostages in the central Stephansplatz Square.
Following a protest for the hostages on Thursday at which two protesters were arrested, the Jerusalem District Court partially accepted their appeal on Sunday morning, lightening their conditions of release, the protesters’ lawyer said. The appeal followed conditions that were seen as particularly strict, and limiting their freedom of protest.
It was heard by the district court after the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Thursday forbade the two women from protesting for 60 days, unless the protest is licensed by Israel Police, demanded a deposit of NIS 5,000 from each, and required that the two find a third party guarantor for an additional NIS 10,000.
Many protests are legal, but unlicensed, and so the conditions were seen as a harsh curtailing of the women’s freedom of protest.
Following the appeal, the deposit was lowered and the period during which the protesters were not allowed to protest at unlicensed rallies was shortened, said their lawyer, former MK lawyer Gaby Lasky.
The two were arrested for taking part in a protest in which hostage families together with the Women’s Protest for the Return of the Hostages blocked major roads across Israel. Highways were blocked in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Beersheba, as protesters called on the government to bring back the hostages.
One woman was arrested after moving to the sidewalk, following police instruction; the other was arrested after the protest, according to protesters.
“We would have liked for the court to definitively say that the right to protest, especially for non-violent protest, comes before the comfort of bystanders or those driving on the roads,” Lasky said, explaining that the court relied on decisions from cases in the 2005 Gaza Disengagement involving significant violence in its ruling.
“The world has moved forward since then; there are new decisions that sanctify the freedom to protest,” added Lasky.
“The courts have determined more than once that the right to protest should only be curtailed when there is almost certainly significant harm to the safety or well-being of the public,” she said. “In this case that didn’t happen.”
The Women’s Protest group called the original conditions set for release a “disgraceful” scare tactic by the government and police aimed at “preventing legitimate protest.”
At least eight protesters were arrested at anti-government and hostage protests in Tel Aviv and Caesarea Saturday night, according to demonstration organizations. Some were released while others were held overnight before going to court on Sunday.
Another man was arrested in Tel Aviv last night after driving his car into protesters on Namir Road. The passengers in the car cursed at protesters before the car sped up and ran down multiple people, injuring three, according to protesters. The driver kept going after running into them until he was stopped by Israel Police.
The driver was arrested, and his lawyer said in a statement Sunday that he did not intend to run the protesters over, but that a technical malfunction occurred with the car.
A protester who Israel police originally reported had hit an officer with his fist, was actually knocked into the officer by another police officer, Israel police clarified just after midnight on Sunday.
Israel police released a statement about the incident late Saturday, claiming that a few protesters disturbed the peace after Saturday night’s protest. “Unfortunately, a handful of protesters came to violently confront officers and not protest legitimately,” read the statement.
Just after midnight, they clarified that after reviewing footage from the scene, “the protester was pushed by an officer, and without intending to hurt her,” hit her in the face with his elbow.