Thousands gathered Tuesday evening outside the Knesset in Jerusalem to protest for the release of hostages, blocking the entrance to the parliament building. A water cannon for crowd dispersal was deployed, and police and security forces began clearing demonstrators from the area.
“Forces removed rioters near the Knesset,” the police said in a statement. “Since this morning, police officers and Border Police forces have been working to allow participants to protest freely in Jerusalem, including on Gaza Street and near the Knesset, while ensuring the safety and security of all demonstrators. However, due to disturbances this morning in which rioters blocked streets with vehicles, police arrested nine individuals and towed the cars.”
According to the statement, the police began forcibly clearing the area after protesters refused to relocate to the “designated protest area.”
“We are here to fight. Israel today is neither democratic nor Jewish; it is a messianic, racist dictatorship that uses its citizens' lives to stay in power,” Danny Elgart, brother of Itzik Elgart, who was killed in Hamas captivity and later returned to Israel, said at the protest. “This government prides itself on returning hostages dead, though they were taken alive. It ignores the families of hostages who criticize it, sabotages deals, and evades responsibility. The prime minister is unfit. He has brought fascists into the government.”
Elgart said that his brother’s death was the result of military pressure imposed by Israel on Hamas. “The prime minister continues this pressure,” he said. “Their blood is on his hands and on the chief of staff, who follows illegal orders with a black flag hanging over them.”
Renana Gome Yaakov also spoke. Gome Yaakov’s children, Or and Yagil, were released from Gaza last year; her husband Yair, known as Yaya, was killed in Hamas captivity. Yair’s body remains in Gaza.
“Since October 7, even our thoughts have been taken hostage. When they told us Yaya was murdered, we stopped feeling. He is gone, but his children are alive. Shir survived the massacre. Or and Yigal were taken from their bedroom, where they grew up, and spent 54 days in captivity. Today, they are here because of a deal. We try to fake normalcy, but our home has been destroyed,” Gome Yaakov said. “Imagine your child going to bed every night thinking, ‘Where is my father? Where is his body? What does he look like now?’”
Tzvi Zussman, whose son Ben was killed in combat in Gaza early into the war, also called for a deal to bring the hostages home. “Ben will not return, but the hostages can—and we have a moral duty to do everything before it is too late,” he said. “Their belief in life and in their return keeps them going. Without trust in each other, everything falls apart. The hostages believe in us, and we must honor that trust by bringing them home.”
Kibbutz Be’eri member Adi Pakciarz spoke about surviving the Hamas massacre that killed her father and 101 other members of the kibbutz.
“When my father was killed, I was hiding in a safe room, helpless. I refuse to be helpless ever again,” she said. “We demand that the lives and dignity of the hostages be the top priority of decision-makers. We demand it, and an entire nation demands it with us.”
