Families of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 protested outside Netanyahu’s residence on Saturday, demanding the government give them more chances to negotiate and bring their loved ones home, the Times of Israel reported.

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in central Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand the return of hostages held in the Gaza Strip and early elections to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Demonstrators marched through Habim Square, some carrying placards chastising Benjamin Netanyahu with slogans such as “the face of evil” and demanding “immediate elections,” AFP reported.

Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure to secure the return of hostages kidnapped on October 7 in an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli territory and then taken to the Gaza Strip, where Israel has since waged war against the Palestinian movement.

“Their blood is on your hands. You left them”

Omer was present at a music festival in Reim on October 7 when the Hamas terrorist attack began. He suffers from asthma as well as celiac disease, which does not require medication but means it is unsafe for him to eat gluten-containing foods such as bread, which many of the freed hostages say was the staple food in Hamas captivity.

Karmit Palti Katsir, whose mother, Hanna, was freed from Gaza during a temporary truce in November, said that while it was too late for her father, Rami, who was killed on October 7, there was still a chance to save her brother. Elad, who is still being held in Gaza.

“My mother returned from captivity after 49 days, I can’t imagine what state people are in after 105 days,” said Palty Katsir. Hanna Katsir returned from Gaza in serious condition.

“For 105 days, the Israeli government abandoned them to their own devices, to death, to the firing squad of the Israeli army, abandoned them to psychopathic criminals,” she said.

Addressing Netanyahu and the government, Palti Katsir said: “Their blood is on your hands. Their lives are your responsibility. You abandoned them on October 7th, continue to abandon them now. Every day they will return home in coffins.”

“You have two choices: either you make a deal, or you leave the house and say, ‘Karmit, I’ve decided to sacrifice your brother’s life because defeating Hamas is more important to me,'” she said.

“They tell us that they are doing their best, but it is not true, they are lying to us. All they do is military pressure, and their military pressure kills the abductees,” she said.

“Due to their pressure, Yossi Sharabi and Itai Svirsky, who lived 99 days in captivity, were killed, and for what? If you had done everything you could, you would have stopped the fighting and released the kidnappers,” she told the Times of Israel.