On Sunday morning, September 1, Israelis awoke to the devastating news that, amidst the ongoing horror of the war in Gaza, six hostages had been executed by Hamas terrorists. The week before, the parents of one of the murdered, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, had spoken passionately at the Democratic National Convention about the pain that this war has brought, and about the need for an immediate ceasefire deal to see Hersh and the other hostages released.

NIF has been supporting the Hostage and Missing Families Forum—an umbrella organization representing most of the hostages’ families—since its creation. In a statement on Sunday, the Forum said that the six “were taken alive, endured the horrors of captivity, and were then murdered in cold blood.” The statement also noted that “a deal for their return has been on the table for over two months. Were it not for the political maneuvers, the excuses, and the spin, the abductees whose deaths we learned about this morning would probably be alive.”

Since that day, Israelis have been organizing and protesting en masse. The Histadrut, Israel’s largest union, called a general strike for the following day, which lasted for some hours before being ended by a court order. A reported 700,000 Israelis took part in these protests, marking the largest anti-coalition push since the start of the war.