Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv and across Israel on Saturday night in weekly protests calling on the government to make a deal with the Hamas terror group for a hostage release deal and ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, while thousands more gathered for a separate Jewish-Arab anti-war protest.

The demonstrations came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had issued instructions for negotiations to be held for the return of all 50 hostages, even as he moved toward approving plans for a military offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City.

Hamas said last week it had agreed to a proposed deal, which would see the release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 slain hostages during a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, as well as the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners. During the ceasefire, Israel and Hamas would hold negotiations for the return of all remaining hostages and a permanent end to the war.

Netanyahu has indicated in recent weeks, however, that he would only support a comprehensive deal, rather than a phased, partial agreement, and only if the terms meet all his conditions, including the disarmament of Hamas, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, and the transfer of governance to a body that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, Liran Berman, whose younger brothers Gali and Ziv Berman were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and are held hostage in Gaza, voiced skepticism about Netanyahu’s commitment to reaching a deal.

He noted that no negotiating team had been dispatched for talks yet, but that the premier has already approved the IDF’s planned operation to capture Gaza City.

“He talks about negotiations,” Berman charged, “but in practice he is sacrificing them.”

The hostages’ brother noted that this past week marked one year since six hostages — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi — were murdered by their Hamas captors in a tunnel under southern Gaza’s Rafah, as Israeli troops approached the area where they were held.

“They were murdered after we were promised that ‘only entering Rafah will free the hostages,’” Berman said.

“This week we also marked a year since the return, for burial, of Chaim, Yoram, Alex, Avraham, Nadav, and Yagev, who were killed as a direct result of Israeli bombs,” he added.

The six men, whose bodies were recovered by soldiers in August 2024, were shot dead by their captors, likely after Israel struck infrastructure close to the tunnel in which they were held.

“And we aren’t forgetting Yossi [Sharabi, and Itay [Svirksy], and Noa Marciano, and all 42 hostages who entered Gaza standing on their feet, and left dead. It was possible to save them,” he said.

Berman called on the prime minister to accept the deal on the table rather than move forward with the Gaza City operation, warning: “Expanding the fighting only puts them and all the hostages at even greater risk.”

“There is a deal on the table. But deals do not last forever; their windows close fast and hard, as we have seen too many times before. This may be the last chance to save lives and to bring the fallen back.”

Roni Adar, whose brother Tamir Adar was killed fighting Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and his body abducted to Gaza, asked, “In what world does a little sister have to plead, for two years, to stand at the grave of her older brother?”

What is the job of the state, if not to look after its citizens?” she said.

“Tamir must come home. Not because he was a hero, not because he was the first to fight, and not because they fought alone against the whole world. Simply because he is, above all, a human being. A man who loved life and loved living. Who loved Israel — both its land and its people,” she added.

Adar also told protesters that two weeks ago, she’d been cursed at on the street, presumably by someone opposed to a hostage deal, for wearing a t-shirt with the image of her fallen brother.

As happens every week, a separate protest — this one explicitly anti-government — was held nearby, on Begin Road.

There, Itzik Horn — whose sons Eitan and Iair were both abducted on October 7, with Iair released in a January hostage-ceasefire deal and Eitan still captive — told ralliers that if Netanyahu believed the Gaza City takeover would truly return the hostages, he should send his own two sons to fight in the Strip.

And, he said, if the operation goes ahead, Netanyahu must take responsibility for the results, whatever they are.

“If, God forbid — God forbid — as a result of the operation in Gaza, hostages die, many soldiers die, this time, you won’t be able to run away from it — this was your plan,” he warned.

“You won’t be able to say, ‘They didn’t wake me up,’” he said, referring to Netanyahu’s repeated insistence that the military and security chiefs — not he, the premier — were primarily responsible for the failures on October 7.

“You will be to blame for the death of my Eitan,” Horn said. “I don’t want to receive Eitan in a nylon bag.”

After the speeches ended, protesters gathered around a group of drummers and lit a bonfire. It burned for a few minutes before police entered the crowd with a fire extinguisher and quickly put out the blaze.

Minutes later, protesters lit another fire while continuing to chant for a hostage deal. It was soon extinguished by the cops as well.

As the flames fizzled out on the pavement, Zahiro Mor, the nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder, gave an impromptu speech, telling protesters that “we are now seeing not an attempt, but the active torpedoing [of hostage deal negotiations].”

“We will do everything to prevent this!” he declared. “Starting tomorrow and continuing throughout the entire week, there will be tons of demonstrations… the important thing is that we get out onto the streets and finally voice our fucking rage!”

In addition to the main protests in Tel Aviv, demonstrators gathered in Jerusalem, Haifa, and other major cities across Israel, as well as at highway junctions across the country, to call for a hostage deal.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, and the body of one soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.

Of the 50, 20 are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others. The remaining 28 have been confirmed dead by the military.

A separate anti-war protest, led by an Arab civil society group in partnership with human rights organizations, was held in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square earlier in the day on Saturday, drawing thousands of participants.

Demonstrators, some of whom wore keffiyehs and held signs accusing Israel of committing genocide and starvation in the Strip, chanted: “From Gaza to Jenin — stop killing children,” and “Gaza, Gaza, don’t despair, we will end the occupation.”

The protest was organized by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the leading umbrella organization representing the country’s Arab minority, together with the Partnership for Peace movement and a coalition of human rights groups.

Police on Thursday threatened to revoke the permit for the protest and a march that was planned alongside it, citing “the excess of events” the police already had to cover,” and demanded attendance be capped at 500 people rather than 5,000.

Following the cancellation of the permit, committee chair Mohammad Barakeh accused authorities of trying to silence Arab opposition to the war.

The demonstration featured the participation of all four Arab-majority parties — Hadash, Ta’al, Balad, and Ra’am, who are currently engaged in ongoing discussions over reviving the Joint List alliance.

Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Sliman took to X to share images of the anti-war protest, writing: “Here at Habima Square, despite attempts to silence and subjugate us, thousands of voices are crying out: End the war of destruction and starvation immediately!”

“The establishment can revoke permits, but the moral stand for life, justice and equality doesn’t need a permit, it only demands that you be a human being,” she wrote.

While the demonstration passed mostly without incident, a woman was arrested for suspected incitement as the protest was dispersing,

The 61-year-old protester was detained after she was heard leading a group in chanting: “With our soul and blood, we will redeem you, Gaza.”

Police say she expressed “inflammatory remarks, contrary to the law.”

The officers shut down the demonstration soon after the protesters started to thin out.