Thousands gathered in central Tel Aviv and across Israel on Saturday night to demand the return of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, five days after Edan Alexander was released from Hamas captivity.
The protest, organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, was held at Hostages Square, where demonstrators called on the Israeli government to secure the release of the remaining 58 hostages. Alexander, 20, an American-Israeli, was freed last week through a deal brokered between the Trump administration and Hamas.
“Edan’s return must open the door to an agreement that brings all the hostages home—those still alive for rehabilitation, and those killed for a proper burial,” the Forum said in a statement. “Time is running out. The world is watching. History will not forget. There is only one way—we will bring them back. We will rise.”
Among the speakers was Yifat Haiman, the mother of Inbar Haiman, 27, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival near the Gaza border on Oct. 7 and later confirmed to have been killed in captivity. “Inbar volunteered to help with running things at the party,” her mother said. “When the attack began, she fled for hours. Gunmen shot at her and eventually took her to Gaza.”
Yifat Haiman described the pain of living in uncertainty for 70 days before the family received word in mid-December that Inbar had been murdered. Her body remains in Gaza. “We sat shiva without a funeral,” she said. “I still feel her next to me. Maybe it sounds strange, but I need to see her to know what happened. It’s been nearly 590 days. I have no grave, no place to light a candle, no place to lay a flower.”
“How can I grieve when she’s still lying there in Gaza? How long must I wait?” she said. “The hostages must come back not only for us, their families, but because their return will be the true victory.”
Levi Ben Baruch, Alexander’s uncle, spoke about the family’s mixed emotions since his nephew’s release. “Edan came back with kind, tired eyes and a beating heart,” he said. “Our joy is indescribable—but so is our pain. As we say in the Rosh Hashanah prayer: ‘The eye weeps bitterly and the heart rejoices.’”
He said Alexander’s return should serve as a reminder that peace is possible. “Edan came back to show us that you don’t need war to return. You can talk. We can bring all of them back—not just one or ten—all of them.”
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Ben Baruch warned that continued fighting endangers both the hostages and Israeli society. “The fighting continues above the heads of the hostages. They hear it, feel it, are hurt by it—and it threatens them every moment,” he said. “It also threatens us, dulling our hearts and breaking our spirit.”
He added that Alexander had seen the protests while in captivity. “He saw you marching, holding signs, raising his voice and theirs. Your presence was a beacon, giving him the strength to survive another day, another night. Don’t stop.”