A few hours after Israel abruptly shattered the ceasefire in Gaza, members of the Sha’ar Begin hostage families group woke up in their tents near one of the entrances to the Israeli military headquarters. For the past 10 days, they had been camping at the location in central Tel Aviv as part of what Einav Zangauker, the group’s unofficial figurehead and mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, called the “Otef Kirya” operation (Hebrew for “surrounding the military HQ”). “We are here to block Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from returning to fighting in Gaza with our bodies,” Zangauker told Israeli media on the day the first tents were erected.

At first, it seemed the growing number of activists and their supporters — now filling around 100 camping tents underneath the bridge connecting the military HQ and the adjacent mall — were gathering momentum. During the day, they organized a variety of protest actions: morning jogs around the military HQ led by Zangauker; activities for parents and children focused on the hostage families’ struggle; and silent sit-ins. During the evenings, they held demonstrations attracting hundreds and sometimes thousands of participants, blocking traffic and calling on drivers to step out of their cars as they read out the names of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza.

Since breaking away last winter from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main organization representing the hostage families, due to its restrained approach and reluctance to confront the government directly, Sha’ar Begin has singled out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the primary obstacle to a deal. Adopting confrontational and sometimes even theatrical tactics — like laying out a Shabbat table in the middle of the Ayalon Highway and setting it alight — they have been consistent in demanding the release of all the hostages at once in exchange for an immediate end to the war.

They have managed to garner widespread attention, particularly in the international media: several released hostages have reported that they watched the group’s protests on Arab news channels while in captivity. But while their protests may have given strength to some of the hostages in Gaza and kept the issue on the public agenda, it soon became clear that the Israeli government wasn’t listening.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Israeli army renewed its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, killing over 400 Palestinians and injuring hundreds more that night alone. Since then, several hundred more have been killed, as Israeli ground forces have begun recapturing areas of Gaza that they had vacated as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal. “From now on, negotiations will take place only under fire,” Netanyahu declared on Israeli television following the resumption of the attacks.

After the news broke, Zangauker — accompanied by her daughter, Natalie, and Matan’s girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky, who was taken captive alongside him on October 7 and freed in the first hostage deal in late November 2023 — led a handful of activists from the Sha’ar Begin group on a march to the Gaza fence. Setting out from Kibbutz Nir Oz, from which Matan and Ilana were kidnapped, Zangauker and her fellow activists soon reached the barbed wire barrier that precedes the actual border fence.

“How do I enter?” Zangauker asked one of the military officers stationed there. The soldiers stood by, unsure how to react, as Zangauker started crawling underneath the razor wire, followed by her fellow activists. Until then, the only Israelis to march on the Gaza fence had been far-right settlers advocating for Israel to re-establish Jewish settlements in the Strip. 

When they reached the border fence, the group sat down with their backs against it. It was the closest Zangauker had been to her son since the start of the war more than 17 months ago. “My Matan,” she called out through a megaphone. “We won’t allow [them] return to fighting. We will continue to demand that the government end this war and release the hostages — all at once.”

With the sound of machine gun fire echoing in the background, Zangauker then addressed the soldiers. “To the soldiers who are preparing the weapons for a ground invasion, and to our air force pilots, I implore you, don’t be quick on the trigger. Citizens of Israel have been abandoned in captivity by a political echelon that demands you kill them in order to stay in power. Think carefully before you drop a bomb. There’s a good chance you’ll be killing Matan.”

After about an hour, Zangauker and the other activists agreed to disperse, not before pleading with the soldiers to leave up the pictures of the hostages that they had hung up on the fence.

‘Netanyahu is toying with Trump like he did with Biden’

That evening, thousands of Israelis took to the streets in central Tel Aviv for a demonstration that was originally called to protest Netanyahu’s decision to fire the head of the Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar. Netanyahu accused the agency chief of running a “campaign of blackmail and threats” against him, after Bar had launched an investigation into allegations that the prime minister’s aides had taken money from Qatar during the war — a potentially huge scandal that has come to be known as “Qatargate.”

After Israel began bombing Gaza again that morning, however, the demonstrators’ focus shifted to include calls against the resumption of the war and in support of a hostage deal. The following morning, tens of thousands marched toward the Knesset in Jerusalem with these demands, where they were met with fierce police violence.

Yet despite the impressive turnout and energy in the protests over the past few days, the resumption of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza naturally left the activists of Sha’ar Begin feeling more pessimistic than ever. Mere hours after the renewed attacks started, former National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who quit the coalition two months ago over the ceasefire deal, announced that his faction would rejoin the government — ensuring that Netanyahu can pass the 2025 state budget at the end of the month, and thus averting a major crisis.

“Netanyahu achieved what he sought, big time,” Yehuda Cohen, whose son, Nimrod, is still held captive in Gaza, told +972. “He now has wall-to-wall support [within the coalition] to continue the war, fire the head of the Shin Bet, break down checks and balances, and pass the budget.”

Even before Tuesday, it was becoming increasingly clear that Netanyahu had no intention of proceeding to the second phase of the ceasefire deal he signed with Hamas. This pushed some of the hostage families to put their faith in President Donald Trump, who they saw as having pressured Netanyahu to accept the deal in the first place.

“What works in our favor is that deals are being made above the Israeli government’s head,” Shahar Mor, nephew of Avraham Munder — whose body was retrieved from a tunnel in southern Gaza in August — told +972 two days before Israel broke the ceasefire during a protest outside the military HQ. “In our opinion, this is excellent, because the Israeli government brought us absolutely nothing.”

Now, after Trump signed off on the renewed Israeli assault in Gaza, Mor and other Sha’ar Begin activists have lost hope that Washington will assist in securing their loved ones’ release. “We counted on Trump in the last month, but Netanyahu is toying with him like he toyed with Biden for 15 months,” Mor said on Thursday.

Cohen echoed Mor’s sentiment. “[It seems] the Trump administration lost interest,” he told +972 after the collapse of the ceasefire. “We don’t hear calls from Washington — even the most gentle ones — to return to negotiations, not to mention threats. [They’re telling the Israeli government:] ‘Do what you want.’”

With no faith in the Trump administration — especially after it signaled its intent to negotiate a separate deal with Hamas solely for the release of American hostages — the Sha’ar Begin families find themselves with little recourse. “We’re really helpless,” Cohen said. “I don’t see anything we can do. I’ve reached the realms of cynicism.”

Having exhausted every tool at their disposal over the past 530 days, and facing a government that refuses to acknowledge them, the hostage families and their supporters must now try to find a way to further escalate their protests. And as Israeli bombs continue to rain down on Gaza, time is running out.