Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza closed a major street in Tel Aviv on Thursday to urge the government to negotiate with Hamas for their release, local media reported.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, "dozens of families of the hostages and Israeli protesters blocked the main street near the Ministry of Defense headquarters, calling on the government to swiftly reach a deal with Hamas to secure the hostages’ release."
In a separate demonstration, dozens of protesters blocked the beach road in the city of Herzliya in central Israel, demanding that the government take action to free the hostages held in Gaza, the channel reported.
Earlier in the day, at a news conference in Tel Aviv, families of hostages in Gaza announced their escalation of "struggle measures" to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to ensure the release of their loved ones, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.
Israeli media outlets, including the Haaretz daily, reported Wednesday that Netanyahu ordered an Israeli delegation, which was supposed to travel to Cairo on Thursday to resume negotiations on a prisoner exchange, not to go there.
Israel believes that 134 Israelis are still being held in Gaza after the Israeli army managed to free two hostages in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. The ensuing Israeli attack has killed at least 28,663 people, mostly women and children, and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which, in an interim ruling in January, ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.