Tens of thousands of people are expected to join a rally calling to free the hostages held captive on the Gaza Strip on Saturday night in Tel Aviv, with organizers then leading a march to the US Embassy office in the city, to urge a comprehensive deal to return all remaining hostages and end the war in Gaza.
The move comes as US President Donald Trump said he believes that a breakthrough in a partial deal that would see at least 10 living hostages released was coming “very shortly.”
In a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum ahead of the rally, family members of the hostages said that they will march from their regular rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square to the US embassy to “shout that an absolute majority of the Israeli people demand a comprehensive deal, now!”
Doron Steinbrecher, who was released from Hamas captivity in February as part of the last hostage deal, is slated to address the rally at Hostages Square in English. Ilay David, brother of hostage Evyatar David, and Nadav Rudaeff, son of hostage Lior Rudaeff, will also deliver remarks in English.
At the US Embassy, speeches will be delivered by Macabit Mayer, aunt of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, and Omri Shtivi, brother of hostage Idan Shtivi.
Additional events and rallies will take place throughout the country, including at the southern Sha’ar HaNegev Junction, Carmei Gat, and Jerusalem.
The protests come amid ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal talks in Doha and following remarks by Trump Friday suggesting that another 10 hostages will soon be released from Gaza.
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on July 18, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
“We got most of the hostages back. We’re going to have another 10 coming very shortly, and we hope to have that finished quickly,” Trump said during a dinner with lawmakers at the White House Friday, lauding the efforts of his special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since July 6, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that would see the release of 10 hostages and the remains of 18 slain captives — a deal which the Forum, which calls for a release of all hostages in one stage, has criticized.
Subsequent negotiations would be held during the 60-day truce regarding the terms of the permanent ceasefire that is supposed to come into effect afterward. Once that permanent ceasefire is reached, the remaining 22 hostages will be freed, according to the terms of the deal under discussion.
In addition to the main rally at Hostages Square, anti-government hostage families and activists will protest a block away outside the Begin Road entrance to IDF headquarters.
Protesters at the Begin gate typically accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of extending the war in Gaza to appease his far-right coalition partners, facilitating Haredi draft evasion to appease his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, and seeking to avoid accountability for his alleged failures around the Hamas onslaught.
The October 7, 2023, onslaught saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty 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.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 58,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
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