The protesters demanded that a ceasefire and hostage release agreement be accepted by the Israeli authorities.

Families of the captives in Gaza, led by a man named Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan was kidnapped on October 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz, shut down Namir Road in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday.

The protesters demanded that a ceasefire and hostage release agreement be accepted by the Israeli authorities.

The Times of Israel claims that the activists painted yellow ribbons with the words “abandoned” and “because of you” along Namir Road and other important thoroughfares, such as Highways 2 and 4. These ribbons represent sympathy for the hostages.

In order to demand the release of their loved ones, family members tied themselves together and blocked traffic on the Hayarkon Bridge.

Chained up, Zangauker stood next to her daughter Natalie, who had been hurt by police during a previous protest, in front of a sign that said, “Abandoned to their deaths”.

Zangauker addressed the demonstrators, addressing Netanyahu by name and referring to his Jerusalem home, saying, “We will not let the executioner from Azza Street abandon Matan and the hostages to their deaths.”

“Prime Minister, look us in the eye. We won’t give up on our kids. The games and the spins are finished. As the audience began to shout “Everyone! Now!” she said, “We will fight until we bring everyone home.”

In the midst of the closed road, bonfires were lit, and demonstrators detonated coloured smoke bombs in front of placards and banners charging the government with failing to protect the hostages who were kidnapped over 11 months prior during Hamas’s horrific October 7 assault and massacre in southern Israel.

A group of protesters were being pushed by police officers towards a homemade bonfire in video footage of the demonstration. However, other protestors intervened and forced the police officers to retreat just in time to save the enormous banner the demonstrators were holding from catching fire.

Numerous protestors organised a sit-in somewhere along the demonstration path, refusing to move even as police made an effort to remove the painted yellow ribbons from the street.

Protesters heard the calls from their vantage points on the ground, and chants of “There’s no atonement for failure and abandonment!” and “Why are they still in Gaza?” began to spread among the crowd.

After six hostages were executed in a tunnel in Rafah late last month, just days before the IDF found them and removed their bodies, calls for a truce and hostage release have been more vocal during the past two weeks.

Massive protests have broken out across the nation following their deaths after 11 months of captivity and Netanyahu’s insistence that he would not accept any agreement that required Israel to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border. Last weekend, police estimated that thousands of people participated in the demonstration in Tel Aviv.

Of the 251 captives taken by Hamas on October 7, it is thought that 97 are still in Gaza, including the corpses of at least 33 people the IDF has confirmed are dead.

During a week-long ceasefire in late November, Hamas freed 105 civilians; four hostages had been freed earlier. Troops have managed to free eight hostages while they were still alive, and they have also retrieved the bodies of 37 hostages—three of whom were accidentally killed by the military while attempting to free themselves from their captors.

Along with the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were murdered in 2014, Hamas is also detaining two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015.