At 6:29 on the morning of August 17, 2025, the precise minute the Hamas-led assault began on October 7, 2023, demonstrators spread out across junctions and intersections in Israel to open a nationwide strike for the hostages still being held in Gaza.
The October Council, which speaks for many of the families of the hostages and the bereaved, organized the day together with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Organizers said they expected close to a million people to come through Hostages Square in Tel Aviv over the course of the day, with tens of thousands more joining events at hundreds of other locations around the country.
The families are pushing back against a government that has chosen to widen the fighting with an operation to take Gaza City instead of signing an agreement to free their relatives. Volunteers handed out yellow ribbons, the symbol of the hostages, to anyone passing by.
The day was thick with vigils and marches: a doctors’ march at 9 a.m., a students’ march at 5 p.m., a photography show at Hostages Square, prayers at 6 p.m. and a main rally at 8 p.m. Car convoys left points across Israel at 4 p.m., bound for Tel Aviv and the evening gathering.
The Histadrut, Israel’s main labour federation, stayed out. Its leader, Arnon Bar-David, told the families he feared dragging the powerful union into politics, and said a strike, even a long one, would have “no practical outcome”.
Hundreds of local councils, businesses, universities and technology firms said they would join or let their staff take part. Militant groups in Gaza hold 50 captives, including 49 of the 251 people seized in the October 7 onslaught, and twenty are believed to be alive, Israeli officials have said.
Sources
- Large protests held across Israel as national strike for hostages gets underway | The Times of Israel
- Tel Aviv, hostages' families call a general strike: "No to the conquest of Gaza City, stop the war."
