Anti-government protests to free hostages and oust Netanyahu
People gather in Tel Aviv, Israel during a protest against Israeli hostages held in Gaza on March 30. (Photo: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images).
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Ra'anana and Herzliya this Saturday to demand the release of hostages in Gaza and the impeachment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Demonstrations on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv also called for immediate general elections. Video of the rally shows police officers trying to push back protesters at the Begin Gate, one of the entrances to the city's Kriya military camps.
“No one is leaving! We will march to Jerusalem and stay there until the government is dissolved,” read one banner.
At another rally in Tel Aviv's Hostage Square, Hamas prison escapees urged Israeli authorities to immediately bring home the hostages still in Gaza.
Freed hostage Aviva Siegel, whose husband Keith Siegel remains in Gaza, called on Israeli authorities to “take responsibility” and do more to free her wife and other hostages held by Hamas and other fighting groups in Gaza.
“I'm asking you — Commander in Chief, Prime Minister, Secretary of Defense — I'm dying here; do you understand? We're dying here,” Siegel said during his speech at the rally.
Many supporters of the hostage rally are marching through the streets of Tel Aviv this Saturday night.
The Forum of Relatives of Hostages and Missing Persons said in a statement this Saturday that the rally will move next week to Jerusalem, before the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
