Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend rallies across the country Saturday night demanding the return of the bodies of 18 slain hostages still held in Gaza after the last living hostages were released Monday under the ceasefire deal with Hamas.

In a press release on its central rally planned for Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said “the agreement that was signed to bring back the hostages is being blatantly violated — our struggle is not yet over.”

“Our moral, ethical and national duty is to bring back everyone, until the last hostage,” said the Forum. “Their return is a necessary step toward rehabilitation and genuine Israeli renewal.”

The hostage deal required Hamas to release the remaining 20 living hostages, and the deceased hostages accessible to it, within 72 hours of Israel’s October 10 withdrawal to the so-called Yellow Line inside Gaza. At least one slain hostage’s relative has criticized the government for failing to insist on a precise deadline for the release of the slain hostages.

Hamas released the living hostages in time and has so far released 10 of the last 28 slain hostages still in Gaza. In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Hamas has said it would require additional machinery to locate the remaining 18 slain hostages. Israel has accused Hamas of lying, and the Families Forum has called for the ceasefire deal, which includes steps to address Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, to be suspended over Hamas’s failure to return all the bodies.

“Following a week laden with moments of joy and pain, the hostage families and captivity survivors invite the nation of Israel to the central rally at Hostages Square to continue the incomplete struggle,” said the Forum. “Our responsibility, the nation of Israel, is to guarantee the full implementation of the deal. Its violation must be met with a very serious response by the government and the mediators… a nation that abandons its fallen is abandoning its future.”

The rally will feature speeches by relatives of two slain soldiers whose remains are still held in Gaza: Orna Neutra, whose son Omer Neutra was killed fending off the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaza war; and Ayelet Goldin, sister of Hadar Goldin, who was killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war and is the only remaining hostage in Gaza from before the October 7 onslaught.

Also set to speak are Udi Goren, cousin of Tal Haimi, whose body was abducted to Gaza after he was killed defending Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak from invading terrorists; Yotam Cohen, whose soldier brother Nimrod was among the 20 living hostages who returned to Israel on Monday; and Talya Dancyg, granddaughter of Alex Dancyg, whose body was recovered by the IDF in August 2024, a month after Israel confirmed he had been killed in captivity.

After the rally, the Families Forum will hold a musical event at Hostages Square called “Songs of Longing,” which will feature songs chosen by hostage families, to “remind everyone, we are here until the last hostage returns home,” the Forum said.

Other, smaller rallies are set to be held in dozens of locations across the country, including Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat and the Shaar HaNegev Junction in the south, said the Forum.

A separate, anti-government rally is also planned to take place in front of the IDF headquarters’ Begin Road gate, a block away from Hostages Square.

According to anti-government activist Nava Rozolyo, the Begin gate demonstration is set to feature speeches by Yael Or, cousin of Dror Or, one of the 18 slain hostages still in Gaza; Labor MK Gilad Kariv, a prominent member of opposition party The Democrats, which is an alliance of his party with the smaller left-wing faction Meretz; former Meretz lawmaker Gaby Laski, who is part of a group of lawyers that offers pro bono representation to people detained at anti-government protests; and Merav Roth, a clinical psychologist who has worked with families affected by the October 7 massacre, who is also the younger sister of Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.

Affiliated rallies will be held in other locations including Jerusalem, Haifa, Netanya and Kfar Saba, Rozolyo said, vowing to keep going “until the October 7 massacre and especially the Hamas funder” — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who for years oversaw monthly cash payments from Qatar to Hamas in Gaza — “are out of our lives and replaced by responsible and worthy leadership.

“Until Israel goes back to being a democracy,” she added, “and until a state commission of inquiry is established” into failures surrounding the October 7 onslaught — something Netanyahu has rejected, saying the judiciary, which selects the committee, is biased against him due to his government’s judicial overhaul plan.

Release ‘the national prisoners’

A right-wing protest is also set to take place in front of Rimonim prison, in central Israel’s Even Yehuda, to demand the release of what organizers called “the national prisoners.” Those include US-born Jackie Tytell, in jail since 2009 for killing two Palestinians and other attempted murders, and Amiram Ben Uliel, in jail since 2015 for firebombing a West Bank Palestinian home, killing parents and their infant son.

“You’ve let out thousands of terrorists? Free the national prisoners!” said the “Committee for the Release of the National Prisoners,” referring to the Palestinians released in the Gaza hostage deal, in an announcement that included the pictures of Ben Uliel, Tytell and four others.