On Saturday night, thousands of Israelis took part in mass protests in Israeli cities calling for release of the 241 hostages being held by Hamas.
In Jerusalem, protesters gathered in front of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence, calling him to resign in light of the security failure over the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Another rally took place at the Tel Aviv Museum Square near the Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv to support the families of the Israeli hostages, and 40 others who are missing. The crowd chanted in Hebrew "now, now, now," the words of one of the hostages from the video posted by Hamas, stressing the urgency of the hostages’ release.
In the four weeks since the attack, in which at least 1,400 Israelis and foreign citizens were killed and the 241 Israelis and foreigners now being held hostage were kidnapped from Israeli towns near the Gaza border, the relatives of the hostages have been increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress on their release.
Speaking from the stage at the Tel Aviv rally, they declared the hostages' release should be the top priority of the Israeli government.
Hadas Kalderon’s two sons were kidnapped to Gaza from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with their father and two more family members. Since the attack, she said, she "lives in hell and in a bubble of horror."
"One month later, there is still no hostage exchange. I am expecting and demanding from the government: Don’t abandon our kids, their lives and fate are in your hands," she said.
Ella ben Ami, 23, from Kibbutz Be’eri said both of her parents were kidnapped to Gaza on the day when 10% of the kibbutz residents, including women, children, and infants, were killed by Hamas.
"My mother is a sick woman; she won’t survive without her medication. We don’t have time," she told the crowd. "I don’t understand how humanitarian aid goes to monsters that raped and butchered. I demand to stop humanitarian aid [to Gaza] until our loved ones get humanitarian help."
The event ended with the crowd singing the national anthem. But many families of the hostages stayed in the area, preparing to spend another night in the tents in the square that now has a grim new name, Square of the Kidnapped.
Parents of 19-year-old Karina Ariev — who, according to her father, Albert Kariev, was last seen in a Telegram channel video on the day of the attack, in a vehicle with Hamas militants, wounded but alive, headed toward Gaza — say they have not received any information about what happened to her since.
"We want the Red Cross to get to our loved ones [free]," her mother, Ariev told VOA. "We want to know whether they are alive or dead. Because since October 7, we are not alive. What happened to our kids, to the elderly, to the babies, to the pregnant woman who was supposed to give birth? Our life has stopped. We are calling for everybody who can get to Qatar, to Hamas, to get them back home."
Noam Alon, 24, told VOA his girlfriend, Inbar Haiman, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival, where more than 260 revelers were massacred. He said the Israeli government should make more of an effort to bring the hostages home.
"They should put the hostages’ situation on top of their priorities, and pay any price, even if it says to release all the Palestinian prisoners, we are expecting them to pay any price to bring the hostages back — today," he said.
He is sleeping in a tent in the square, he said, his girlfriend "cannot speak for herself. We don’t even know what conditions she is in. I am here to speak for her."
Hila Galili, an artist who built several installations in the square, stood with her hands tied with a rope with a zipper covering her mouth in an art exhibition.
"Hostage families are in a situation where they can’t talk because of the fear of retaliation against their loved ones," she said. "They are between the rock and the hard place. … They want to raise their voice, but they can’t. The hostages also can’t raise their voices, because they are closed, and they are tied up. So, I am standing like this, and sometimes when you are standing silent, the scream is much louder."
