“Life Comes First”: Israeli Peace Activists Condemn War on Gaza, Demand Ceasefire Deal

Israelis celebrated the return of the four hostages in Saturday’s raid. The four hostages — Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv — were all in good medical condition. Just hours after the rescue, thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv and other cities to protest Netanyahu’s government and to call for a deal to free the remaining hostages. We speak to Ami Dar, an Israeli social entrepreneur based in New York, who supports the exchange of hostages and prisoners and a permanent ceasefire deal. “Let’s get all the hostages back, and if that means that every single detainee and prisoner, Palestinian, is freed, then so be it. Life comes first,” says Dar, the executive director of Idealist.org. We also hear more from Maoz Inon, an Israeli peace activist whose parents, Bilha and Yakovi Inon, were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. “We are not going to compromise for anything less than a lasting peace,” he says.