Families of hostages held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip on Saturday urged the government to secure the freedom of all remaining captives as the last living hostages scheduled for release in the first stage of a troubled ceasefire deal with Hamas were set free.

At the weekly hostage support rally in Tel Aviv, the focal event for demonstrations on behalf of the captives, hostage mother Einav Zangauker called on leaders to negotiate the release of all the captives in one tranche, while the father of a captive who returned to Israel earlier the same day added his voice to the urgency of freeing those still languishing in Gaza.

Relatives of hostages panned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of being less concerned about the fate of the hostages than the Trump administration, and of putting the captives below his own political needs.

The three-stage ceasefire agreement, reached last month, halted some 15 months of fighting triggered by the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, when Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

The deal requires the terror group to release all its hostages, Israel to release thousands of Palestinian security prisoners — including hundreds serving life sentences — and a halt to fighting in the Strip, followed by negotiations for a “sustainable calm” and IDF withdrawal from the enclave.

Only 30 living hostages have been released during the first phase, including five Thai nationals along with the bodies of some others. On Thursday, Hamas is to hand over four bodies, concluding the first phase of the ceasefire.

Talks on the second phase, which were supposed to begin earlier this month, have not yet started. Under the terms of the deal, the first stage formula of hostages released in batches can be continued if negotiations on the next stages are underway.

Zangauker hailed the release of six hostages earlier in the day and said the hearts of all the hostage families are with the families of slain hostages Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz, whose bodies were returned — amid controversy — at the end of the week.

Though highlighting the joy in Israel at the day’s releases she told the Tel Aviv protest: “It must not be that the deal is stopped and that we return to fighting.”

Zangauker, whose son Matan is a hostage, noted that 63 hostages are still “in hell in Gaza.”

Apparently referencing an ostensible Hamas proposal to release the rest of the hostages in one go in return for a complete end to the war, she said the Americans want all the hostages back at once and so does most of the Israeli public.

“One batch, right away,” she urged.

Zangauker denounced what she said is a “disconnected government” that is instead preparing for a return to the war. She charged that Netanyahu, who she said created the entire phased process, is “dragging his feet… trying to please his extremist coalition partners at the price of the blood of Matan and the rest of the hostages.

“Hostages first… All of them now,” she urged Netanyahu. “It can’t be that [US President Donald] Trump and envoy Steve Witkoff want this more than the prime minister,” she said, referring to the US president’s special envoy to the region. “Netanyahu, these are your citizens, abandoned on your watch.”

Trump has repeatedly spoken of returning “all the hostages” even at stages when only some were supposed to be set free under the terms of the deal, but without clarifying his intention. Other senior US officials have made similar remarks and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday posted to X that Hamas must free “all the hostages” or face its demise.

Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, was slated to meet Saturday night with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, the Walla news site reported.

Netanyahu has not committed to the second phase, which would see Israel withdraw from Gaza and Hamas return the remaining living hostages. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to topple the government should it withdraw from the Strip, instead pushing for renewing the war to completely eradicate the terror group.

At Saturday’s Tel Aviv rally, held in what has been named Hostages Square, Gilad Korngold hailed the return from Hamas captivity of his son Tal Shoham that morning, “after 505 long days in which he breathed the air of hell.”

He thanked the government, Trump and the Austrian chancellor for securing the release of his son, a dual Israeli-Austrian citizen.

Korngold pointed out that this was the last weekend of the hostage deal’s first phase.

“As of now, this is the last Saturday that we, the citizens of Israel, will get to see pictures of hostages embracing their loved ones,” said Korngold.

“We can and must get all the hostages out,” he said. “And we need all of you, with us, to make sure that no one — no one — thwarts the rest of the mission to release the hostages who are still suffering in Gaza.”

Ahead of his speech, Korngold and his wife Nitza met at Hostages Square with Sasha Troufanov, who was released the Saturday before, Hebrew media reported.

A block away, on Begin Road, hundreds of anti-government, pro-hostage deal protesters rallied in front of IDF headquarters.

Yehuda Cohen, whose soldier son Nimrod is slated for release only in the deal’s second phase, accused Netanyahu of consistently working to thwart any hostage deal since October 7, 2023, out of political expediency.

Cohen thanked Trump and his envoy Witkoff for locking in the Gaza hostage deal. Witkoff was actively involved in negotiations even before Trump was sworn into office on January 20.

Meanwhile, said Cohen, “the criminally accused Netanyahu,” who has been indicted on several counts of graft, is running “endless circles to cover up his sins and crimes.”

“The criminal Netanyahu will do anything to please the war-monger Smotrich,” Cohen said. “The criminal Netanyahu will do anything to cover up his crimes against the State of Israel.”

In English, Cohen addressed the US president, pleading with him to help secure the remaining hostages’ release: “President Trump — we rely on you. Only you can do it.”

The fate of the ceasefire process was cast into further doubt later Saturday when Israel said it won’t release hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners who were supposed to be exchanged for the six hostages, citing the “humiliating ceremonies” staged by Hamas when hostages are handed over. Netanyahu said Israel would demand an end to the gauche fanfare that Hamas has put on as it hands hostages to the Red Cross, before resuming freeing prisoners.

Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu, with the backing of Trump’s administration, says he’s committed to destroying the terror group’s military and governing capacities and returning all hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 63 hostages, including 62 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 36 confirmed dead by the IDF.