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Bonfires burn on the highway as Israelis protest removal of Tel Aviv police commander
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Thousands of people blocked Tel Aviv’s central highway and other major roads in Israel on Wednesday night, as protests surrounding Israel’s proposed judicial overhaul continue to heat up. Some lit bonfires on the road and clashed with police
Dozens of people were arrested in the protests, and police dispersed the demonstrations using mounted officers and water cannons. One man was injured when he was hit by a car that drove through the crowd on the highway. Protests continued Thursday as demonstrators blocked a highway in the coastal city of Binyamina.
The impetus for Wednesday’s protests, which coalesced beginning around 9 p.m. in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and other locations, was the resignation of Amichai Eshed, the Tel Aviv district police commander. Eshed had clashed with Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister, who wanted him to crack down more harshly on the antigovernment protests that have amassed weekly this year in Tel Aviv’s streets. Ben-Gvir had attempted to fire Eshed in March, a decision that was frozen by Israel’s attorney general.
Facing a demotion, Eshed instead quit his post on Wednesday, saying in an address that he was “paying a heavy personal price for my choice to prevent civil war.”
The protests are the latest in six months of demonstrations against the Israeli government’s efforts to strip the Supreme Court of its power and independence. Tens of thousands of Israelis have gathered in the streets to oppose the plan every Saturday night, and this week, the protests have intensified as Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has advanced a piece of the overhaul effort that would restrict the court’s ability to strike down decisions made by nationally elected officials.
On Monday, thousands of Israelis gathered in the main terminal of Ben-Gurion International Airport, filling the arrivals hall and clogging the roads around the airport. More than 50 people were detained at that demonstration, which had been planned days in advance and took place despite opposition from the Israel Police.
Protesters in Tel Aviv on July 5, 2023. (Ben Sales)
Wednesday’s protest was more spontaneous, with smaller groups of people gathering at night on the thoroughfare that serves as the protests’ usual spot. Larger crowds had come together on ramps that led to the Ayalon Highway, standing atop medians and climbing into the lanes themselves. The crowds were still there around midnight, though they were cleared out soon afterward. Some protesters were sitting in rows on the asphalt and others gathered around a bonfire that crackled into an already hot night. People cheered them on from bridges and balconies surrounding the city’s Azrieli Mall.
Many attendees waved the Israeli flags that have become a symbol of the protests, and wore T-shirts with pro-democracy or antigovernment slogans. One man waved a large flag with the red-and-black logo of anti-fascist groups. It was a smaller version of the protests that erupted in March after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister for criticizing the judicial reform – a decision Netanyahu later reversed.
“This is a celebration of democracy,” said a woman from Tel Aviv waving an Israeli flag who gave her name as Efrat. The protesters, she said, “care about the state. We want to live, we want a future here.”
In Jerusalem, protesters clashed with police officers in the center of the city as tense, sometimes physical, encounters between protesters and advocates of the reforms dotted the streets in the surrounding neighborhood. One man carrying a handwritten sign reading “End the Tyranny of the Supreme Court” in Hebrew distributed stickers with the same message and received both angry criticism and support from passersby.
A supporter of proposed judicial reforms in Israel debates an opponent on the streets of Jerusalem, July 5, 2023. (Philissa Cramer)
Senior Israeli government officials, meanwhile, condemned the protesters as well as Eshed. Amichai Eliyahu, a cabinet minister from the far-right Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, party, referred to the Tel Aviv commander as “pus” in an interview with Israeli media. And Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister, liked a tweet that showed a video of the car driving through the crowd of protesters, and described it as someone “who insists on his fundamental right to freedom of movement.”
“Responsibility for the chaos on the Ayalon Highway rests with law enforcement and the police, who have lost control against the anarchists who are blocking the Ayalon again and again and again,” Smotrich wrote in a separate tweet, also accusing the police of “selective enforcement” that favors left-wing demonstrators.
Philissa Cramer contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.