Hope and anger: Weekly protests persist for Israeli hostages after 400 days of Hamas captivity

Marking 400 dreadful days since those taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, have been in captivity, the weekly protests pressurizing the government persist, demanding a deal. 

Though there is currently a cap on the numbers legally permitted to gather, hundreds rallied outside the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, and another 500 in Hostages Square. Gatherings in Beersheva and Jerusalem on Saturday night also yielded hundreds of participants.

One sign at the rally on Begin Street in Tel Aviv read, “400 days – the shame of Netanyahu,” while Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert gave a speech in Hebrew, saying for some Israeli politicians, “the fate of the hostages is just one of the aims, and certainly not the primary one.” 

Joining in the frustration, journalist Shai Golden asked, “What has gone wrong with your Jewish conscience, Mr. Prime Minister?” Until recently Golden worked for the right-leaning Channel 14 news outlet. Addressing Netanyahu he demanded, “Send your negotiating team wherever is necessary and say to them a single sentence: don’t you dare come back without a hostage deal.”

Not a single day has gone by since the Oct. 7 terror attack that the hostages have been forgotten in Israel and the protests have continued without fail, except during the brief period when the IDF Homefront Command restricted large gatherings due to the high-security risk. But with every negotiation failing so far, is there still hope that the hostages might be finally recovered? 

Prominent protester Rabbi Avidan Friedman from Efrat reminded the gathered crowd that the portion of the Torah this week includes Genesis 14, in which Abraham rescues his relatives after they were kidnapped:

“When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.” (Genesis 14:14-16)

Friedman has previously led a hunger strike in front of the Knesset to highlight the issue, and insisted, “Then, as now, the foremost fight of our existential struggle is to rescue all of the hostages.” 

The Times of Israel reported an apparent increase in numbers following the controversial dismissal of Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, Nov. 5, replacing him with right-winger Israel Katz. Gallant has publicly opposed Netanyahu’s claim that it has been necessary to maintain an Israeli presence in the Philadelphi Corridor and throughout Gaza.

In what may have been the final straw, the former defense minister told hostage families that the IDF had no reason to remain in the Hamas enclave, but that the prime minister was keeping forces in the Strip “out of a desire to stay there.”

IDF operations have been continuing in the Strip, particularly in Jabalia and Beit Lahia with dozens of terrorists eliminated in the last few days, two of whom participated in the Oct. 7 massacre. Forces also discovered weapons caches and a tunnel shaft. 

Channel 12 news reported that Gallant had informed the families that Netanyahu was the only person who was able to decide on a hostage deal and assured them that he had “tried and failed” to persuade the prime minister to agree to a deal that would involve ending the war in Gaza.