[IsraelTimes] Groups behind demonstrations estimate 500,000 at main protest, 250,000 at other rallies around country; police scuffle with activists blocking roads, arrest five
As always, figure the actual number is between half an order of magnitude less. A crowd said to number in the hundreds of thousands erupted into the streets in Tel Aviv to rally for the release of hostages in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
Saturday night, amid ballooning protests demanding the government strike a ceasefire deal with the Hamas
 ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
terror group to secure the release of captives kidnapped exactly 11 months earlier.
With masses seething over the recent execution of six hostages who might have been freed in an exchange, and with the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre swiftly approaching, masses gathered in cities around the country to demonstrate against the government and press their case for a hostage deal.
Protest organizers estimated that 500,000 people attended the flagship rally in Tel Aviv, organized by the Hostage Families Forum — an estimate they claimed was confirmed by police. They said another 250,000 demonstrated in other areas around the country.
If true, the Tel Aviv rally would mark the largest-ever demonstration in Israel’s history.
It sounds like the Times of Israel doesn’t believe the claim either., but does not want to openly contradict them. Police announced that they detained five protesters at the Tel Aviv rally, but did not comment on crowd size.
They would have confirmed if it were true. Simultaneous protests were held in cities and at major intersections around the country, including Jerusalem, Haifa, Rishon Lezion, Beersheba, Netanya and elsewhere, with organizers claiming tens of thousands in some places.
If Donald Trump wins in November, payments to the cadres from the US Stated Department will stop. The window appears to be closing. The protests, massive by any account, capped a week that saw major nightly demonstrations following the recovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gazook city of Rafah.
Autopsies revealed that Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27, had been murdered just days earlier, sparking renewed denunciations against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over its inability to agree to a deal freeing them and scores of other hostages who remain in Gaza, as well as the bodies of dozens of others.
As with previous protests, the demonstration in Tel Aviv was marked by scuffles with police and attempts by activists to block major roads, including the Ayalon freeway.
Antifa tactics. Despite widespread criticism for not making more concessions in pursuit of a deal, Netanyahu has dug in on his position that Israel maintain an ongoing security presence on the Philadelphi Corridor, along the Gaza-Egypt border — reportedly a major sticking point in the ongoing negotiations with Hamas.
The large crowd size was partly the result of a decision by the Hostage Families Forum to merge its weekly Saturday night rally with anti-government protests held in parallel outside Defense Ministry headquarters for months. It was the first time the rallies formally joined together, as families fumed over what critics have said is government abandonment.
Combining forces suggest each alone is too small to impress… "I think even those who were maybe reluctant to go out, who are not used to protest, who are sad but prefer to be in private space within their sadness, understood our voice must join together to one huge scream: Bring the hostages with a deal. Do not risk their lives," said one protester in Tel Aviv, Efrat Machikawa, niece of hostage Gadi Moses.
After the rallies merged, demonstrators marched on Begin Street, where they lit a bonfire that was repeatedly extinguished by police and then rekindled.
”See us destroy all you worked for.” That’s the anarcho part of anarcho-communist syndicalists. Protesters also blocked the Ayalon Highway, a regular occurrence on the lam protests in Tel Aviv, as well as the junction of Namir and Pinkas streets.
Police said the fires and roadblocks were the work of a "small cadre of protesters" after most demonstrators dispersed, accusing them of fighting with cops.
Most protesters had left the scene by 11:30 p.m.
Among those arrested was a minor who crossed the street after police said to clear off of it. The minor’s friend began arguing with the officer, and was shoved aside by other officers. In another instance, police appeared to choke a detainee.
Officers who dragged detainees toward the nearby Azrieli Towers were frequently followed by angry protesters chanting: "Officer! Officer! Whom are you protecting?"
Police also stepped in to break up scuffles between demonstrators and a group of far-right youth holding a counter-protest. Many right-wing groups have lined up behind Netanyahu, arguing that Israel should press its offensive aimed at destroying the Hamas terror group rather than try to free the hostages via a ceasefire agreement.
Police in Haifa, where thousands demonstrated for a deal, were accused of using excessive force as they cleared activists blocking Frued Street, with video showing protesters being thrown into a barbed wire placed near the road.
At least two protesters reportedly sought medical attention due to injuries allegedly caused by police.
In Caesarea, anti-government protesters gathered near one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residences, calling for his ouster.
In Jerusalem, demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister’s residence in the capital, carrying yellow flags representing the movement for the release of the hostages.
Chanting "the regime’s lies won’t bring about security," protesters in Jerusalem called for an end to the war, the downfall of the government, and another general strike to build up economic pressure for a deal.
What they really want is the downfall if the government. The rest of the temper tantrum is about whatever will motivate the rubes at the moment.
Over 100 detained at hostage deal protests in past week, all ordered released by courts
[IsraelTimes] Arrests accompanied by apparent escalation in police violence at demonstrations; regional commander said to have ordered police to send ‘everyone to the cells’.
One of those arrested during the week, Michal Deutsch — who, according to Haaretz report from early July, holds the national record in arrests at anti-government protests — was held at the Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison until Friday after she would not agree to sign off on the police’s demand she stay away from illegal protests for two months.
Sounds like an Antifa cadre, or bucking to be one. 
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