Thousands of people rallied in cities across Israel on Saturday night to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and for the return of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The protests, which take place weekly, were held this week against the backdrop of a new ceasefire and hostage deal proposal put forward by the US, and Hamas’s response to the offer, which was deemed “totally unacceptable” by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Ahead of the main protests on Saturday evening, a group of hostages’ families warned in their weekly press conference that the temporary deal on offer would lead to the deaths of those left behind.

Relaying the urgency of the situation, Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, slammed Netanyahu for only seeking partial deals rather than a comprehensive, one-off agreement, and warned that it would be “a death sentence for hostages that remain behind.”

She said she discovered earlier this week that Matan narrowly escaped  bombing several times.

“In one case,” she said, he “almost suffocated to death from toxic gases in a tunnel that was bombed and collapsed.”

Yehuda Cohen, father of hostage Nimrod Cohen, said he feared his son, an IDF soldier, would be left behind under the current proposal.

“He is likely to pay the price of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence not to end the war,” Cohen said, adding: “Netanyahu is abandoning my son and is shattering the Israeli ethos for political reasons.”

Later in the evening, at the rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, which markets itself as apolitical, the young sons of a slain captive issued a heartfelt appeal for the return of their father’s body.

“I need to know he’s here so I can get back to my life,” said Or Yaakov, who, along with his father Yair and brother Yagil, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.

Yair was killed during the assault and his body remains in Gaza, while Or and Yagil were released during a weeklong truce in November 2023.

“Why have we been waiting........

© The Times of Israel