Families of Gaza hostages led a protest march from the Knesset to the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday, during a planned “Day of Disruption,” calling on the government to negotiate a deal to release the 48 captives still held by terror groups in Gaza.
At the same time, protesters elsewhere in the country temporarily shut down several roads, including Route 1, the key Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, and Highway 431 near Modi’in.
The families of the hostages set out from the Knesset following a stormy meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, during which the father of hostage Rom Braslavski accused lawmakers of “drinking the blood of the hostages” by pushing ahead with an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip.
“Instead of having a toast on Rosh Hashanah, you will be drinking the blood of the hostages,” screamed Ofir Braslavski. “You will drink their blood because they are dead!
“You all need to go home…My son is dying, does that interest any of you? This happened on your watch,” he declared.
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Braslavski, 21, was abducted from the Nova music festival during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre. He is being held in the Strip by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.
The terror group published a video of Braslavski in July, and claimed that it was recorded days before it lost contact with his captors, leaving his fate unknown.
Ofir Braslavski, the father of hostage Rom Braslavski, who is held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, speaks at a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, September 3, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
After the meeting, and before setting off for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence, the families spoke to protesters who had gathered outside the Knesset to support them.
“If the prime minister wanted it, the hostages would be back here within a few days, even by the High Holidays,” said Anat Angrest, whose son Matan is a hostage in Gaza.
She lamented that a “hostage routine” had developed in Israel since the October 7 onslaught almost two years ago, marked by “great sadness, from rally to rally.”
“Decision-makers, some of whom haven’t served a day in the army, are betraying the army, are sending soldiers to fight and die,” she said.
Angrest urged the public to join the protests and embrace one key goal, “Stopping the war and returning everyone, down to the last hostage.”
She stressed that the public should only protest “within the bounds of the law,” likely alluding to an incident earlier on Wednesday when activists torched dumpsters and tires near Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence, inadvertently burning an IDF reservist’s car.
Vicky Cohen, the mother of hostage soldier Nimrod Cohen, told the crowd that she had “not slept 698 days” out of worry for her son.
“The time has come for you, too, to not sleep,” she said, addressing Netanyahu.
“Prime minister, I’m on my way to you,” she continued. “I expect you to come out and greet us and explain to us what the plan to return Nimrod and all the other hostages will be.”
The march of the families and hundreds of protesters set out for Netanyahu’s home, flanked by higher-than-usual numbers of police and Border Police officers in light of the arson earlier in the day.
Among those accompanying the families were activists from the Mishmeret 101 (Shift 101) protest group, clad in their trademark white and carrying posters of the hostages.
“We are with you, you are not alone,” they chanted.
Vicky and Yehuda Cohen, the parents of hostage soldier Nimrod Cohen, walk at the front of a march to the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem residence, on September 3, 2025. (Shani Tamim/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
As the marchers passed through Paris Square, they were greeted with a row of 48 yellow chairs, each one with a photo of a different hostage taped onto it. Crowds of protesters were gathered there in a show of solidarity, some of them waving yellow flags or Israeli flags. One woman held a sign reading “Parents of combat soldiers cry ‘Enough!’”
Once at the premier’s residence, the families again addressed the public, this time sitting at a long table draped in yellow inside a protest tent set up ahead of a large rally planned for Wednesday evening, and which will remain there until after a second protest planned for Saturday night.
The families called for Israelis to travel to Jerusalem to take part in two major rallies against the expansion of the Gaza war.
“We are standing here with a very simple and direct message: We want a ceasefire and hostage deal and it is [Netanyahu’s] responsibility to do it,” said Yehuda Cohen, Nimrod Cohen’s father.
Angrest, meanwhile, decried the expansion of the war in Gaza, where the IDF is preparing to capture the densely populated Gaza City in the enclave’s north, pointing to the defense establishment’s widely-reported opposition to the plan.
“The IDF chief of staff is saying in a clear voice that continuing the war is a death trap for soldiers,” she said. “Maybe [Netanyahu] will listen to us here, there is no more ‘hostage routine’ in the State of Israel.”
“Prime minister, I voted for you in the past, and now I am asking of you: Choose your people, choose your fighters, choose your civilian hostages,” Angrest pleaded. ״Show Matan and Nimrod that there is a prime minister who fights for them.”
Activists from Shift 101 stage a sit-in on Azza Street in Jerusalem during a protest calling for the release of the hostages, on September 3, 2025. (Danor Aharon/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Braslavski also took the opportunity to issue a public plea, saying, “Unfortunately, my child is dying, starving.”
“His eyes were saying that he no longer wants to be alive,” he said, referring to the PIJ video. “There’s nothing worse than that, for a father to see his child in that state and not be able to do anything.”
“How can it be that they’re keeping him there and the prime minister wants to occupy more land in Gaza?” he asked.
The families’ call for protesters to gather in Jerusalem was answered by a group that made its way to the entrance of the city via the Route 1 highway, and another via Highway 431.
Both groups temporarily blocked traffic along the busy roads.
Protesters block Route 1 near the entrance to Jerusalem to demand a hostage deal and a ceasefire in Gaza, on September 3, 2025. (Adar Eyal/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
On Route 1, the protesters stood still behind a large banner calling to “save the hostages, end the war,” and held up large stop signs, each with a bright red handprint in the center.
“We won’t move until they’re all back!” they chanted.
On Highway 431, the demonstrators laid out a large banner declaring: “You abandoned and you killed,” in reference to Netanyahu, and the blame apportioned to him by many for the failure to prevent the October 7 massacre and to return those abducted to Gaza that day.
The roads were reopened after roughly an hour.
Ahead of the evening’s main rally, a group of academics and students led by prominent anti-government activist Shikma Bressler staged a protest outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, demanding an end to the war, the return of the hostages, and elections, before marching to Netanyahu’s home to join up with the rest of the protesters.
Enough with the excuses, families tell PM
As night fell and the main rally outside Netanyahu’s residence got underway, Angrest and Cohen took to the main stage to again address the prime minister.
“Every day of footdragging they die a little more,” said Cohen. “The hostages cannot wait for your speeches, your explanations, your excuses.”
She demanded that Netanyahu remove the yellow hostages pin he often wears on his lapel, and that he “stop saying that you are with us.”
“If you were really with us and actually cared, my child would be at home,” she said.
Anat Angrest (left) and Vicky Cohen (right), whose sons are held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, speak at a rally outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem on September 3, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)
Angrest, taking over from Cohen, inquired of Netanyahu: “How do you sleep at night? How do you attend toasts and celebrate as if everything is fine? How do you go on with your life when you know our children are dying there?”