Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on Thursday for a protest demanding an end to the Gaza war and return of the hostages after Israel announced it had recalled its negotiators from Qatar where they’d been holding indirect talks with Hamas.

The rally, which began with a moment of silence for fallen soldiers, a prayer for the safety of the troops and the release of the hostages, featured parents of hostages, parents of soldiers, and reservists demanding that the war — on its 657th day — finally come to a close.

“In the beginning, this was a just war. But after 22 months, this war no longer has a security purpose,” declared Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Noam Tibon.

“The war has turned into a political war, and while the best of us are falling in Gaza, the October 7 Government — the government of the failure and neglect, is passing a disgraceful draft-evasion bill, weakening the IDF and playing politics on the backs of our fighters,” he said, referring to efforts by the government to keep the coalition together by exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from mandatory military service.

“Today, as the hostage negotiating team is again being recalled, we all already know and understand that the only way to bring all the hostages home is to make a deal to end the war,” Tibon said, adding: “Everyone knows that it’s entirely possible and must happen in one go, without ‘selections,'” — a reference to the partial deal being advanced by the government, which only envisions the initial release of roughly half of the remaining hostages.

While Hamas has offered to release all 50 remaining hostages in one batch in exchange for an end to the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the trade, arguing that it would leave Hamas in power.

Hostage families have decried partial hostage deals, comparing the process to the “selections” Nazis made during the Holocaust, between Jews who would be kept alive for forced labor and Jews who would be sent straight to the gas chambers.

Vicky Cohen, whose son Nimrod Cohen is still held hostage in Gaza, said that her son, a tank soldier, “chose to protect the state due to his Zionism and love of the land, but the state that he loves so much isn’t protecting him right now.”

She added: “The leaders of the state are insisting with all their might on partial deals that could leave Nimrod behind. Some elected officials are even calling to give up on Nimrod, an IDF soldier. There is one thing that separates us from Nimrod: the end of the war.”

Also addressing the rally were several parents of conscripted combat soldiers, who have been fighting in Gaza for almost two years, spending weeks at a time in the Strip and only leaving for a few days in between.

“Most of them don’t know why they’re there, in a war that has gone out of all proportion, without a clear goal or destination,” one mother said. “We won’t stay silent when our sons are being broken, returning as shells of themselves, living in the shadow of trauma, if they return at all.”

“Our soldiers need help. We demand an end to the war now. Free all the hostages in one go — Now! And immediately start caring for the soldiers, in body and mind.”

Ilan Garin, the father of a tank commander who was wounded in Khan Younis, said his son told him that when his forces were in Jabalia, they captured the same building four different times — each time leaving and allowing Hamas fighters to return. “At a certain point, I started to ask myself: What are we doing there? Why is it taking so long?”

“Today, we’re not fighting for anything, except what interests Netanyahu — that there won’t be a commission of inquiry and that his trial will be delayed. For that, we’re sacrificing our children,” he said.

At the end of the protest, demonstrators burned tires and blocked roads in two different parts of Tel Aviv.

Thick smoke could be seen near Begin Road and on King George Street before officers put out the flames. Demonstrators also sat in the road to block traffic before being forcibly cleared by police.

There were at least two arrests, according to Hebrew media. The Protest Detainee Legal Support Front, which confirmed one arrest, published footage of police officers yanking a man by his shirt out of a crowd of protesters near Begin Road.

In Haifa, police arrested 24 protesters at a small anti-war demonstration held in the city’s German Colony.

Officers were filmed attempting to disperse the demonstrators while tearing up signs only a few minutes after the protest began.

Later on, officers started tackling protesters to the ground, handcuffing them and carrying them to a police van.

Police described the 24 detained protesters as rioters, saying they “did not respond to officers’ orders, held up signs and chanted slogans against Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza.”

In a video from the site of the protest, one handcuffed demonstrator shouted to reporters that officers had beaten several female protesters inside the van before she herself was pushed into a police car.

The protest was one of several anti-war demonstrations organized by Haifa’s Arab residents, which often see mass arrests.

A small number of left-wing Jewish Israelis also attend these demonstrations, which typically amount to a few dozen participants.

In April this year, police forcefully arrested 23 demonstrators at a similar protest in the same spot, tearing paper signs from participants’ hands as they chanted against the war.