Hundreds of thousands of Israelis staged a nationwide "day of stoppage" on Sunday, paralysing traffic, shuttering businesses and filling Tel Aviv's Hostage Square to demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas and secure the release of captives still held in Gaza. Organisers counted more than 200,000 people in the Tel Aviv rally alone, while demonstrations and road blockades were reported at more than 350 sites across the country. The strike was spearheaded by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum nearly 22 months after the 7 October 2023 assault in which militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and abducted 251 others. Israeli officials say roughly 50 hostages remain in Gaza and believe about 20 are alive. Protesters fear that a new Israeli offensive planned for Gaza City could jeopardise those captives and prolong a war that Gaza’s Health Ministry says has already claimed more than 61,000 Palestinian lives. Police deployed water cannons to clear highways linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and scuffled with crowds outside government buildings. At least 38 people were arrested on charges of disrupting public order, according to police statements. Netanyahu dismissed the protests, arguing that ending the war without first defeating Hamas would harden the group’s position and delay any hostage release. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich likewise condemned the stoppage as a campaign that "plays into Hamas’s hands." The breadth of Sunday’s mobilisation—the largest inside Israel since the war began—adds domestic pressure on the government as mediators in Qatar and Egypt search for a formula that could trade a comprehensive ceasefire for the return of the remaining hostages.