A move by some family members of hostages held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip to link up with growing anti-government protests has thrown divisions among relatives of captives into sharp relief, highlighting longstanding differences of opinions over how best to secure their loved ones release.

In a dramatic turn Saturday night, relatives of over a dozen hostages held in the Strip came out strongly against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring him an obstacle to reaching an agreement for the captives’ release. They announced that they would join up with anti-government protesters who have held weekly demonstrations in Tel Aviv, leaving behind weekly rallies — held at the same time and also in Tel Aviv — by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which until now has been the main group representing families of those kidnapped on October 7.

But “not everyone” wanted to join the anti-government demonstrators, said Avivut Yablonka, sister of presumed hostage Hanan Yablonka, who was among family members that held a march toward Dizengoff street Saturday night rather than taking the route of other families who joined up with anti-government protests after speakers at the weekly rally for the hostages called on attendees to “take to the streets.”

While Eli Albag, father of Liri Albag, and a former spokesperson for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum claimed that the two causes would now link up officially rather than continue holding dueling rallies, it remained unclear Sunday if that was in fact the case.

“Truth be told, we have a problem because after yesterday we don’t know how the protest [on behalf of hostages] will look and what is correct to do — everyone is choosing for themselves where it is right to be,” Yablonka told Channel 12 Sunday.

She explained that for those who headed along Dizengoff, “it felt right to split into two protests.”

Until Saturday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum had taken pains to avoid being seen as partisan, assiduously avoiding political statements. Yablonka said some families wished to maintain that stance.

The Dizengoff protest was to “scream the cry of the hostages without any political characteristics,” she said. “I think that there are people for whom it is more comfortable to identify with that cry.”

While the broad tent rallies for the hostages have seen activists block roads, they have generally remained more peaceful than the anti-government protests calling for new elections, which have been characterized by regular confrontations with police. Saturday saw violent clashes with police deploying water cannons and arresting over a dozen.

The Forum has not made an official statement on the calls by some families for Netanyahu to resign, or for hostage protests to be aligned with the anti-government movement amid frustration over a lack of progress towards reaching a deal for the hostages’ release.

Tal Gilboa, who is the prime minister’s adviser on animal welfare, and whose nephew Guy Giloa-Dalal is a hostage, wrote on X of the anti-government declarations by some families that “this is really not an announcement of the ‘Families Forum.’ It is consciousness engineering. We, like other families, don’t identify with a single word. Not just don’t identify, but believe this declaration is damaging.”

Unnamed sources at the families forum told Haaretz that the declarations made on Saturday were private declarations that do not reflect a joint decision of all the families and that the families will hold a discussion on what their next steps will be.”

“All the families have one goal: the release of the hostages,” Albag told Channel 12 on Sunday. The difference is that now some families have moved from calling for action to taking action, he said.

Though noting he is “not in favor of toppling the government, certainly not now,” Albag said he backs the kind of civil disobedience that anti-government protesters have applied.

“I think that now we need to work differently, to speak on the street, with demonstrations, with rallies and blocking roads,” he said. “We haven’t found anything else that works.”

Haim Rubenstein, a former spokesperson for the Hostages Families Forum who is now an adviser to the group, wrote on social media platform X Saturday that public opinion is with the families and against Netanyahu while declaring “The rallies are over, the protests have started. Only like this will they come back.”

Others disagree. Tikva, a group of families of captives formed in November 2023, maintains that military pressure on Hamas is the best way to secure freedom for the hostages, a viewpoint shared by the government.

“The families of hostages are astounded by the political activities chosen by families of hostages starting from this evening,” the group said in a statement on Saturday.

Tikva members oppose calling for a new hostage deal at any price — as is demanded by some families, as that “weakens Israel’s resilience and makes it more difficult to get them all home,” said Eliyahu Libman, father of hostage Elyakim Libman.

Though Libman told the network that “it is clear that security chiefs and political leaders must take responsibility and leave their positions — the question is will that damage the chances of returning the hostages?”

“Elections now will distance decision-making in administering the crisis,” he said. “They will take a lot of time and will make the division among people worse.”

While criticizing the fact that leaders have been unable to secure the release of the hostages after nearly six months, he maintained that the anti-government protesters of “taking advantage of the hostage crisis to push their political agenda.”

Protests against the government swelled in early 2023 in opposition to a planned sweeping overhaul of the judiciary which has since been put on hold. The protests, held across the country, were spearheaded by rallies in Tel Aviv and have in recent months again become a weekend fixture in the city.

War erupted on October 7 when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a massive cross-border attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians amid horrific atrocities.

The thousands of attackers who burst into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip also abducted 253 hostages of all ages.

Israel responded with a military campaign to topple the Hamas regime, destroy the terror group, and free the hostages, of whom 130 remain in captivity.

Negotiations via international mediators to reach a temporary ceasefire agreement that would include the release of hostages have so far failed to produce a deal.