Families of hostages held in Gaza called on the public to take to the streets on Saturday evening in support of the 50 people still held in Hamas captivity for nearly 700 days.

The central weekly protest will take place at Hostages Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum at 8 p.m.

Addressing the crowd will be Liran Berman, brother of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman; Dani Elgarat, brother of murdered hostage Yitzhak Elgarat; Roni Adar, sister of murdered hostage Tamir Adar; Hagai Angrest, father of hostage Matan Angrest; and Yonatan Shamriz, brother of former hostage Alon Shamriz, who managed to escape captivity along with fellow hostages Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka, before being gunned down by Israeli troops who mistook them for terror operatives.

Alongside the Tel Aviv rally, additional gatherings will take place at Sha’ar HaNegev Junction, Kiryat Gat, Jerusalem and other locations.

Despite police canceling its permit, a major peace march led by an Arab society was set to go ahead in Tel Aviv on Saturday under the banner “Stop the Starvation, Stop the War – Yes to Life and Peace,” expected to draw thousands of Arab and Jewish participants, according to organizers.

Police withdrew the permit on Thursday evening after previously granting it, organizers said, demanding the number of participants be capped at 500 instead of the 5,000 originally approved.

Earlier this week, Tel Aviv Police District Commander Haim Sargaroff informed organizers that he would revoke the permit “due to the excess of events” the police already had to cover, according to a Haaretz report, including the weekly anti-government rally on Begin Road and the weekly protest for the hostages at Hostages Square.

The demonstration, which is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. in Dizengoff Square and proceed to Habima Square, calls for “an end to starvation, an end to the war,........

© The Times of Israel