More than 100,000 Israelis filled Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Saturday night, demanding the government strike a cease-fire with Hamas and secure the release of captives rather than widen the nearly two-year war in the Gaza Strip. The rally, one of the largest since fighting began, was led by families of hostages who brandished photographs of their relatives and warned that further military escalation could cost the captives their lives. The protest erupted a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet authorised an operation to seize Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban centre. The plan, part of a broader blueprint that envisages Israeli ‘security control’ across Gaza, has been criticised by senior military officers and some coalition partners, who say an assault could jeopardise the remaining 49 hostages, 27 of whom Israel believes are already dead. Israel’s offensive was triggered by Hamas’s attack of 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 abductions. Since then, the Israeli military says more than 400 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza. The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry puts Palestinian fatalities at more than 61,000. Public opinion polls in Israel now show a majority favour a negotiated deal that would end the fighting in exchange for the hostages’ release. International pressure is mounting. Several European allies have urged restraint, and the United Nations Security Council convenes on Sunday for an emergency session on Gaza. Even within Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, ministers are divided between those pressing for a full re-occupation of the strip and others warning that the war’s expansion risks deepening Israel’s diplomatic isolation and prolonging the hostage crisis.