WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Tens of thousands of people again took to the streets of the Israeli-occupied territories’ main cities on Saturday in a bid to increase pressure on the regime to secure the release of captives in Gaza.
Of 251 captives seized during Hamas’s October 7 operation on southern parts of the occupied territories that triggered the ongoing war, 97 are still held in the Gaza Strip, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Weekly rallies have sought to keep up pressure on the Israeli regime, accused by critics of stalling on a deal to free the remaining captives.
Protest organizers say crowd sizes have swelled this month after an announcement by Zionist regime authorities that six captives whose bodies were recovered by troops in a southern Gaza tunnel.
One of the six was Alexander Lobanov, whose wife Michal on Saturday addressed the crowd in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, asking why the regime did not “do everything” to bring him back alive.
“It was possible to save them, to rescue them through a deal,” she said, according to excerpts of her remarks provided by the Captives and Missing Families Forum campaign group.
Thousands of people joined the rally in Tel Aviv and another in Al-Quds, seat of the Israeli regime’s parliament, AFP correspondents said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime is facing rising anger from critics who accuse him of not doing enough to secure a truce deal that would see captives exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The vast majority of the captives freed so far were released during a one-week truce in November. Zionist troops have rescued alive just eight.
Talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to reach a deal between the Zionist regime and Hamas have stalled for months.
Demonstration organizer Noa Ben Baruch, 48, told AFP in Tel Aviv that “the urgency is unparalleled. It’s not only the captives, it’s everything.”
As the war rages on for more than 11 months with no end in sight, “there is no point to it anymore,” she said.
“This war has to end yesterday. It’s futile.”
Around her members of the crowd waved signs that read “Bring them home,” “Seal the deal,” and “End the bloodshed.” 
A group of women wore black t-shirts and jeans stained with fake blood, recreating a widely circulated picture of soldier Naama Levy taken when she was held captive on October 7.
In both Tel Aviv and Al-Quds, the names of captives were read out on loudspeakers.
Tel Aviv resident Ran Eisenberg, 77, said rescuing them should be the regime’s top priority.
“The fact that it doesn’t happen really makes me very frustrated,” he said.