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Tel Aviv Museum of Art Among 100 Most Visited Museums in 2024
Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Photo: Anatoli Axelrod via Wikimedia Commons
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art was among the world’s 100 most visited museums in 2024, according to a list announced by The Art Newspaper on Tuesday.
The Tel Aviv-based museum ranked 78th on the prestigious list with more than 1 million visitors (1,057,362) last year, which is a 17 percent increase from 2023. This is the seventh year in a row that it has been included on the list. The museum was only open for 260 days in 2024 because of security concerns surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, leading to a 23 percent decrease when compared to projected numbers, according to The Art Newspaper.
“This international recognition is particularly significant in a year marked by war and a cultural boycott against Israel in the global art scene,” the museum said.
The museum noted its most popular exhibit in the past year has been “To Catch a Fleeting Moment: 150 Years of Impressionism,” which features approximately 80 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the 1860s through the 1930s. It also marks the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition held in Paris in 1874. The exhibit, which opened in October 2024 and runs until Aug. 2, has so far garnered hundreds of thousands of visitors, according to the museum.
In front of the museum is Hostages Square, where there are regularly press conferences, rallies, and other events in solidarity with the hostages who were brutally kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during their deadly massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“I’m especially proud in this difficult time that the Tel Aviv Museum is gaining international recognition and placed among the top museums in the world,” said Tania Coen-Uzzielli, director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. “The museum, next to the Hostages Square that has already become an integral part of us for over a year, due to the war, has become a cultural anchor of Israeli society, a healing space for many communities and a place of comfort and hope for the general public.”
Uzzielli thanked the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality and Mayor Ron Huldai for supporting the museum. She also gave a “heartfelt thanks to the dedicated museum staff who worked and worked tirelessly to maintain relevance and redefine the museum’s role in times of crisis, and at the same time present non-stop exhibitions of fine art from Israel and the world.”
“I thank the large crowd that chose to come to the Tel Aviv Museum in these times,” she added. “Thanks to you, we continue at all times to be committed to preserving culture for the general public and for the future of the place where we live.”
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem was ranked at number 92 on the list curated by The Art Newspaper with 855,157 visitors in 2024. “The decrease in tourists visiting Israel forced the museum to go out and visit communities with its guides and staff. Group visits to the museum helped balance the group attendance figures,” said the museum, according to The Art Newspaper.
The Musée du Louvre has been the “perennial number one” most visited museum in the world and in 2024, more than 8 million (8,737,050) people visited the iconic spot in Paris. It lost 1 percent of visitors in 2024.
The post Tel Aviv Museum of Art Among 100 Most Visited Museums in 2024 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.