The Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Monday called for another nationwide strike this coming Sunday to pressure the government into ending the war in exchange for the release of hostages, a day after similar mass protests.
Sunday’s protests were some of the biggest since the war began 22 months ago, with some estimates saying that over one million people attended rallies around the country, including over 500,000 in Tel Aviv alone. The day of nationwide civil disobedience was called after the cabinet voted earlier this month to conquer Gaza City, despite warnings by top security officials that doing so would endanger the hostages.
The day of protests came alongside a major strike, which was joined by hundreds of local authorities, businesses, universities, tech companies, and other organizations, though Israel’s central labor union, the Histadrut, did not join the effort.
In a statement released Monday evening, the forum said that Sunday’s protests “prove in a clear manner and a strong voice what most of the country wants: the nation of Israel supports the return of hostages and the end of the war!”
The forum added that it is calling for the “intensification of the struggle for the return of the hostages” as mediating countries scramble to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas before Jerusalem launches its planned offensive to conquer Gaza City.
As the forum announced plans for the second day of protests and strikes, Hamas reportedly agreed to a proposal for a partial ceasefire-hostage release deal that mediators had presented to the terror group a day prior.
After the agreement was reported, an Israeli official confirmed to The Times of Israel that Jerusalem had received Hamas’s latest proposal, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemingly dismissed the reports and signaled that Israel was moving forward with its plan to take over the Palestinian enclave’s largest city and transfer its population to the southern Strip.
The proposal agreed to on Monday by Hamas would see the release of 10 living hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian security prisoners during a 60-day truce, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel, adding that the deal will also see the release of bodies of slain hostages.
A source in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror group fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza, revealed similar details about the proposal and added that after the release of the first 10 hostages, “the remaining captives would be released in a second phase, with immediate negotiations to follow for a broader deal” for a permanent end to “the war and aggression” with international guarantees.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and the body of an IDF soldier killed in 2014. Twenty of the hostages are believed by Israel to be alive, with 28 declared dead by Israeli authorities and “grave concerns” for the well-being of two others.