{"id":89242,"date":"2025-08-18T14:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=89242"},"modified":"2025-08-19T04:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T09:16:16","slug":"hundreds-of-thousands-of-israelis-join-largest-recent-rallies-on-behalf-of-gaza-hostages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/hundreds-of-thousands-of-israelis-join-largest-recent-rallies-on-behalf-of-gaza-hostages\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of thousands of Israelis join largest recent rallies on behalf of Gaza hostages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By PHILISSA CRAMER<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Hundreds of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Sunday at the end of a day of demonstrations around the country to call for the release of 50 hostages held in Gaza.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_89243\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/F250817CG505-scaled-e1755521658858.avif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89243\" class=\"wp-image-89243\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/F250817CG505-scaled-e1755521658858.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-89243\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">People gather at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv during a rally calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza, Aug. 17, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Demonstrations took place in at least 200 locations, and some municipalities and employers shut down completely in response to a call from hostage families for a general strike. The country\u2019s largest labor coalition did not join in the strike, saying it did not think a strike could influence the government\u2019s decisions around the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the demonstrations were among the largest ever against the war, and they gave voice to the 80% of Israelis whom polls show want to see Netanyahu make a deal with Hamas to bring all the hostages home. Organizers said 1 million people \u2014 more than 10% of the population \u2014 had participated during the day, including half a million at the Tel Aviv rally featuring several family members of hostages. Police said they had arrested dozens of demonstrators.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged against demonstrating, saying that the protests emboldened Hamas and actually make it less likely that the hostages, of whom 20 are thought to be alive, would ever go free. The vast majority of hostages released since Hamas took about 250 on Oct. 7, 2023, have gained their freedom through negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>Insiders have reportedly indicated that Netanyahu\u2019s new plan to take control of Gaza City could be bringing Hamas back to the negotiating table \u2014 but only for a partial deal, which Netanyahu has said he will no longer consider.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Hundreds%20of%20thousands%20of%20Israelis%20join%20largest%20recent%20rallies%20on%20behalf%20of%20Gaza%20hostages\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":89243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[8781,378,8790,8795,8788,2794],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89244,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89242\/revisions\/89244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}