Education Minister Yoav Kisch was escorted by police from a school in Kibbutz Kfar Menachem on Wednesday, as protesters demanding action on hostages held by Hamas pursued him during his visit.
The HaElla School hosts evacuees from Nir Oz, a kibbutz near the Gaza border, and the visit turned chaotic when demonstrators confronted the minister.
Police arrested two protesters for assault and attempted assault.
Protesters initially blocked Kisch’s entrance, prompting police to clear the way. The demonstrators, many holding yellow ribbons and posters of the hostages, shouted, “What are you doing for Nir Oz?” and, “Do you even know where it is?”
As Kisch moved through the school, demonstrators jumped fences and followed him inside. Outside a classroom he visited, they chanted, “Why are they still in Gaza?”—a direct reference to the hostages still in Hamas captivity. Upon Kisch’s exit, tensions escalated further as protesters blocked the school’s exit, resulting in scuffles with the police.
“For shame, you are destroying the country,” demonstrators shouted as the minister was led out by officers.
Kisch labeled the protest as “political” and accused the demonstrators of playing into the hands of Hamas.
“The only ones who benefit from this are [terror chief Yahya] Sinwar and Hamas,” he said. Describing the protesters as violent, Kisch said, “They beat policemen. This won’t deter me from doing my job.”
The fracas comes amid rising public pressure over the fate of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Last Saturday night, the Israel Defense Forces recovered the bodies of six hostages, all executed by Hamas. This sparked a wave of demonstrations across the country, with protesters targeting government ministers in public and outside their homes.
At the heart of the protests is growing impatience with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy in the indirect negotiations with Hamas.
His insistence on maintaining a military presence along the Philadelphi Corridor—a critical weapons smuggling route on Gaza’s Egyptian border—has become a sticking point in hostage negotiations. According to the IDF, 97 of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 attack remain in captivity, including 33 confirmed dead.
Despite the protests, a recent JNS poll revealed that a majority of Israelis support Netanyahu’s stance on negotiations with Hamas, with one-third of opposition party voters also backing his position. The poll suggests broad public opposition to anti-government protests in Tel Aviv, where demonstrators have demanded a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
On Sunday, mass protests in Tel Aviv resulted in 29 arrests, with seven more taken into custody by Monday afternoon. The demonstrations, which drew around 30,000 participants, began as a peaceful rally at the Kaplan Junction. However, after the official protest ended, hundreds blocked the Ayalon Highway, committing acts of vandalism and launching fireworks at police. One officer was injured in the clashes and taken to the hospital.
