Families of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip and their supporters held a series of rallies Sunday outside the homes of cabinet ministers accusing the government of “sacrificing ” their loved ones in order to wage an “eternal war.”
Protesters gathered early in the morning outside the homes of Defense Minister Israel Katz, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Energy Minister Eli Cohen, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter.
“We have come to give the cabinet a wake-up call,” the Hostage Families Forum said in a statement announcing the protests, adding that the government’s “decision to sacrifice our loved ones on the altar of an eternal war” showed that it had lost its way.
“There will be no absolution for repeated torpedoing [of hostage deals]. Fulfill the people’s wishes: End the war and bring everyone home,” the group said.
Rob and Hagit Chen, parents of soldier Itay Chen, whom Hamas killed and abducted to Gaza on October 7, were among the protesters at Dermer’s house.
“I haven’t seen my son for 688 days,” said Hagit before Rob read out a list of the hostages still in Gaza. “I don’t know where he is, I don’t know if I’ll ever get him back. Where is the government?”
Addressing Dermer’s wife, Hagit Chen said, “Your husband, Ron Dermer, hasn’t been willing to meet us for eight months since the day he got the job. He isn’t willing to meet with the parents of a hostage, a soldier who sacrificed his life on October 7. What sort of country are we living in?”
At Katz’s house, Yehuda Cohen, father of Nimrod Cohen, said, “Since the hug you gave us at the IDF Headquarters, not only has Nimrod not come home, but you’re also causing his starvation,”
“I know your job is directly reliant on loyalty to Netanyahu. If you really think you’re a defense minister, behave like a defense minister, not a war minister. [Be a] minister who is supposed to provide security for Israeli citizens and soldiers who were captured while protecting your government.”
He added that while Katz was promoted to defense minister after his predecessor, Yoav Gallant, was fired, Nimrod was still in Gaza, where he’s been for nearly two years.
“He’s still in a tunnel. I have come to remind you on the 688th day that an IDF soldier who was sent to defend the country with a faulty tank is still sitting in the tunnels of Gaza,” he said.
Michal Lavi, Omri Miran‘s sister-in-law, called on Dichter to come out of his home and face the protesters.
“I’m sure you saw the videos of Evyatar and Rom, and we know what Omri looks like,” she said. “We have footage from April 23, 2025, and Omri doesn’t look good in it. You can come out and see, I have a photo here. Come out and look at the horrific circumstances you’re responsible for. You’re in a government of decision-makers. Are you willing to change? To show your face? Why are you hiding? Where is your responsibility? What about the values that say no one is left behind, dead or alive? What about saving lives? These are two basic values that the State of Israel is built upon.”
Lavi and her fellow protesters at Dichter’s house were accosted by an anti-protest activist who shouted at them that they were “piles of garbage.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that Sunday’s protests outside the ministers’ homes were a warmup for a massive nationwide protest it was calling for Tuesday, which would aim to heavily disrupt the country.
Earlier last week, Hamas said it had agreed to a hostage deal that would see half of the hostages released while talks kicked off to end the war and free the rest. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, however, that Israel will only agree to a deal that sees all the hostages released at once.
Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had instructed negotiations to continue toward a hostage deal that would see all the hostages released, even while moving toward approving plans for an offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum demanded that Netanyahu accept the deal Hamas had agreed to, saying that pushing forward with a military operation could risk the hostages who are still alive.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. At least 28 have been confirmed dead by the IDF, 20 are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, plus one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a “gesture” to the United States. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 49 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.