Protesters block highways, demand Israeli gov’t salvage the hostage deal ahead of fateful cabinet meeting

Hundreds of Israelis protested against the government on Monday evening and Tuesday morning after Hamas announced it would suspend the release of Israeli hostages “indefinitely,” claiming Israel violated the ceasefire terms.

Within hours of the announcement, a crowd of hundreds gathered outside the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Tel Aviv, lighting bonfires and blocking the nearby Begin Road and Ayalon South Highway.

The next morning, dozens of protesters set off flares and blocked the Route 1 Highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem at the Hemed intersection near the capital.

לקראת כינוס הקבינט: מפגינים ומשפחות חטופים חוסמים את כביש 1 לכיוון ירושלים בקריאה למימוש שלב ב' בעסקה@yaelsharet_ pic.twitter.com/UpEkcuzwGk

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They held a sign reading “Abandoning the hostages is a war crime,” and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of undermining the ceasefire agreement.

“Send a [negotiating] team to Doha that has a full mandate to negotiate the second phase, that will lead to the release of all the remaining hostages in one go,” the group demanded from the prime minister.

According to Israeli media reports, the negotiating team sent to Doha didn’t include high-ranking members, and didn’t receive a mandate to negotiate all details of the second phase of the ceasefire.

"Netanyahu brought us a long agreement that dragged on for months. Today, it is clear that he is motivated by political considerations and is doing everything to sabotage the agreement. From the latest testimonies, our loved ones are going through a Holocaust in captivity. They will not survive there much longer," the hostage families wrote.

The crowds of protesters were noticeably smaller than the weekly protests across Israel, which demand the government do more to free the hostages as quickly as possible.

Later Tuesday, the Israeli security cabinet was set to discuss possible responses to the Hamas announcement, which accused Israel of violating several terms and declared the hostage releases would be suspended until Israel fulfilled them and “compensates for the past weeks.”

In its statement, Hamas listed Israel’s delay of the return of the displaced residents of northern Gaza, opening fire at civilians and alleged limiting of humanitarian aid as claimed violations.

The leader of the left-wing Democrats Party, Yair Golan, also blamed Netanyahu for the looming breakdown of the ceasefire. “As expected, the unwritten alliance between Hamas and the failed prime minister is working again,” Golan wrote on 𝕏.

“Netanyahu keeps Hamas in power, and Hamas repays him with an endless war. The neglectful government must be toppled, Hamas must be eliminated, and the hostages must be saved. We will not give up on them. All of them – now!”

In a surprising twist, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had opposed the ceasefire deal, adopted the hostage families’ slogan: “All of them, now!”

Smotrich published this on 𝕏 after U.S. President Donald Trump set a deadline for Hamas to free all the hostages before Saturday 12:00 p.m., or face “hell.”

His former colleague Itamar Ben Gvir, who left the government over his disapproval of the ceasefire deal, agreed: “Trump is right! Go back and destroy now,” he wrote on 𝕏.

Earlier, he had advocated for “a massive attack on Gaza, from air and land, along with a complete halt of humanitarian aid to the Strip, including electricity, fuel and water, and including bombing the aid packages that have already been brought in.”

Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beytenu Party, also called for blocking the aid entering Gaza unless Hamas agreed to free the hostages. “The Rafah crossing will be closed, and the Netzarim route will return to IDF control,” he wrote.