Some 500 women launched a new coalition, Mothers on the Front, on Sunday to campaign for the end of the war in Gaza and the return of the 50 hostages held by terror groups there, 20 of whom are thought to be alive.
The coalition is inspired by the Four Mothers movement launched in 1997 to advocate for pulling the IDF out of southern Lebanon. That movement was instrumental in the withdrawal that took place in May 2000.
Sunday’s launch event began with a march near the Gaza border to a site memorializing female soldiers killed at Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists overran their army base. The assault on southern Israel saw some 1,200 people slaughtered, mainly civilians, and 251 abducted to the Gaza Strip.
The women plan to camp in protest for at least five days next to Kibbutz Sa’ad in southern Israel.
Last week, Israel’s security cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take over the densely populated Gaza City despite warnings from the Israel Defense Forces that such an operation would risk the lives of the remaining hostages and Israeli soldiers, and would likely worsen the humanitarian situation for Gazan civilians.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
Alice Miller, who in the 1990s successfully sued the Israeli military for the right of women to enlist in the Israeli Air Force Flight Academy to become pilots, carries a placard saying ‘Enough!’ at a march of mothers and women close to the Gaza border in southern Israel aimed at stopping the war in Gaza and bringing all the Israeli hostages home, August 10, 2025. (Naama Zeevi Rivlin)
Orna Shimoni, one of the original Four Mothers, called on IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to present the Prime Minister with other alternatives that did not involve occupation. Israel had already proposed a hostage deal, she went on, that could be used to end the war. “We are one step away from a clearly illegal order that must not be carried out,” she argued.
Moran Zer Katzenstein, who founded the women’s rights advocacy group Bonot Alternativa, or “building an alternative,” four years ago, said mothers would no longer stay silent and that the state had broken its contract to protect its citizens. “We won’t give you our children when you treat them with scorn,” she pledged.
Omer Steinitz Haskel, also of Bonot Alternativa, said that the memorial marked not only the place where blood was shed, but where a line was also broken “between Israel and Gaza, between responsibility and lawlessness, between human life and moral loss.”
Leaders of a new movement of mothers and women to stop the war in Gaza and free the remaining Israeli hostages pose behind a banner saying, ‘Wars end when mothers rise up’, at Nahal Oz, southern Israel, August 10, 2025. (Naama Zeevi Rivlin)
She continued, “On October 7, Israel entered the most just war there was. Our army fought bravely. It scored great military achievements. But almost two years have passed, and these achievements have not been translated into any diplomatic reality.”
“Instead of using this military power to bring about an agreement that will return the kidnapped and end the war, this government insists on continuing a political war,” she charged. “They choose the ideology of eternal war and the death of soldiers over human lives.”
She pledged, “We will be here until our leaders choose life, not death. And we will remember, as the four mothers remembered then, that there is no victory without life, and no security without freedom. This struggle will not end until the last of the kidnapped men and women return home, alive.”
Sigal Price, mother of Noa Price, murdered by Hamas gunmen on October 7, 2023, addresses the new mothers’ and womens’ movement to stop the Gaza war and return all the hostages, Nahal Oz, southern Israel, August 10, 2025. (Naama Zeevi Rivlin)
Sigal Price, whose daughter Staff Sgt. Noa Price, 20, was killed on October 7 when Hamas terrorists overran the Nahal Oz base where she was serving, said, “Here at the memorial we erected in their memory, I, Sigal, mother of Noa Price, would like to express the pain of all the bereaved families, call for the return of the kidnapped and an end to the war, and pray for the safety of the regular and reserve soldiers who have been fighting bravely and with sacrifice for almost two years, and for the recovery of all those wounded in body and mind.”
Is The Times of Israel important to you?
If so, we have a request.
Every day, even during war, our journalists keep you abreast of the most important developments that merit your attention. Millions of people rely on ToI for fast, fair and free coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
We care about Israel – and we know you do too. So today, we have an ask: show your appreciation for our work by joining The Times of Israel Community, an exclusive group for readers like you who appreciate and financially support our work.
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You appreciate our journalism
You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, in a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel