Protests for the release of the hostages and against the government took place Saturday evening at various locations across the country. At the end of the rally in Tel Aviv, relatives of the hostages blocked the Ayalon highway northward, near Hashalom Interchange. Clashes erupted between the protesters and the police. A water cannon was deployed. Three were arrested, among them relatives of the hostages. A protester was injured by the water cannon and needed hospital treatment. The police announced that they managed to reopen the road, but the clashes are still underway. A representative of the families stated: "Netanyahu is the only obstacle stopping a deal and also the obstacle of the state. He managed the most failed war, sacrificing and betraying our loved ones for his political career. Hamas returned to control parts of Gaza that Israel had captured and continues to launch rockets, our forces in the north are inactive, and hundreds of thousands are refugees in their own country. The State of Israel is isolated in the world without aid or security while 132 hostages are languishing in Hamas captivity.'' "We have no independence and there will be none as long as Netanyahu continues to serve as Prime Minister, and the hostages are in Hamas captivity. Netanyahu and the government are abandoning our families to death for political considerations, each of them an accomplice to the crime, to the death of the hostages, and to the insecurity of us all. The war needs to be ended, the hostages returned, and the government replaced to repair Israel.'' Related articles: Ex-BBC dir. warns network risks becoming 'Hamas mouthpiece' Colombian President links hostage to solidarity with Palestinians Argentine President praises Trump, calls for Hamas defeat Israeli official: We're weighing bringing caravans into Gaza Former minister Yizhar Shai, whose son Yaron Uri Shai was killed in the October 7th massacre, appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said, "During your watch, we received more than 1,500 dead in the terrible disaster, hundreds kidnapped, Israeli settlements conquered, terrorists in Ofakim and Sderot and in the surrounding kibbutzim and inside IDF bases. We received destruction and torture and horrors and burning and the smell of death everywhere". "You decided to sell us illusions of absolute victory. You are a coward, weak, extorted, and lacking a backbone, you regard the threats of your ministers as a basis for fateful decisions regarding the kidnapped. What an insult."