September 16, 2025 | 09:44 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Protesters, including former hostages and relatives of those held in Gaza, erected tents outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday, September 16, 2025. They were there to voice their opposition to the ongoing Israeli military assault in Gaza City, as reported by the news portal Ynet.
The police swiftly established a 300-meter security perimeter around the Israeli leader's home.
The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum stated that the former captives and their family members arrived in Jerusalem following reports of an impending Israeli ground invasion.
Those who spent the night near Netanyahu's residence expressed deep concern for their loved ones, who they fear could be killed by the Israeli military in Gaza while being held by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
According to the forum, Netanyahu left his residence just minutes after media outlets reported that the hostage families were planning to protest there.
"I have one interest — that the country wakes up and brings back my son along with the other 47 hostages and the female hostage, alive and dead, and our soldiers who should come home," said Einav Zangauker, the mother of one of the hostages.
"He (Netanyahu) didn’t like hearing us here, he ran away like a coward. We will chase him everywhere, day and night. Enough — the gloves are off," Zangauker added.
The protesters believe their relatives are being held in areas targeted by Israeli bombardments and contend that the military operation in Gaza City is placing the hostages' lives in extreme jeopardy.
Ground Assault on Gaza City
Earlier, the news portal Axios reported that the Israeli military had launched a ground assault on Gaza City with the intent to occupy it. Netanyahu later confirmed the operation.
"We have begun an intensive operation in Gaza City," Netanyahu told the Tel Aviv court, as reported by the public broadcaster KAN and cited by Anadolu.
This announcement coincided with a brutal Israeli offensive on Gaza, where Palestinian residents endured heavy overnight airstrikes and artillery bombardments.
Local sources reported 35 fatalities, with many others injured or missing, amid explosions from explosive-laden drones targeting residential homes and buildings in the northwest of the city.
Netanyahu's court appearance on Tuesday morning was in response to corruption charges against him, including accusations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases.
The ongoing Israeli military actions in Gaza have resulted in the deaths of nearly 65,000 Palestinian citizens since October 2023, and they have devastated the enclave, which now faces imminent famine.
Israel is currently a defendant in a genocide lawsuit at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its conduct in the region.
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