Tom Zandman, a 36-year-old Jewish Israeli from Jaffa, was once a staunch supporter of Israel’s war in Gaza. But now he says there’s nothing defensible or defensive about it. On a busy street corner during rush hour in Tel Aviv last week, Zandman was one of dozens of Israelis standing on the roadside, all holding photos of children killed in Gaza.
“After October 7th, we were all super high on our sense of self-righteousness,” Zandman told me, holding up a photo of two young girls who were killed. “But as time went on, I realized how historic this was… what we are doing in Gaza will be remembered as one of the worst atrocities of the 21st century.”
A car slowed down as it approached the demonstration. The driver honked his horn and rolled down the window. “yamuutuu kuulam!” screamed a woman in the passenger seat at the demonstrators. “Kill them all” in Hebrew.
Most anti-war activism in Israel has focused on demanding a ceasefire deal that would secure the release of the hostages. But an increasing number of Israelis are now taking to the streets to protest against what they view as criminal conduct from the Israeli military in Gaza. These demonstrations are now happening multiple times a week in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Thousands of Israelis marched to the Gaza border on Sunday demanding an end to the war.
As of May 5 2025, 16,278 children and 52,653 people in total have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Critics argue these figures are unreliable as they come from a ministry in a Hamas-led government. But a recent analysis published in The Economist, along with a peer-reviewed article in the medical journal The Lancet, suggests the true death figures in Gaza could be much higher.
“I have a son who was born nine months ago. And I have this sense that he was born with a Gaza-shaped birthmark on his forehead — a mark of Cain,” Zandman said. The mark of Cain, from the Book of Genesis, is a sign God gave Cain to protect him after he killed his brother Abel.
“I have this sense that my son will walk around the world as an Israeli with that thing on his forehead. Germans live in this sense of eternal apology for the Holocaust, it’s going to be the same here,” he said.
The Israeli government has tried to crack down on protests like the one Zandman attended. In late April, Israeli police briefly prohibited Israelis from displaying images of Palestinian children killed in Gaza and using terms like "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" on signs. But following public criticism and pressure from civil society groups, police rescinded the restrictions.
"I thought [the police order] was comically stupid. Trying to ban us has only had the effect of making our voices louder. The fact that they want to stop us from showing what's happening only reinforces the fact that it's happening," said Jed Silver, an American who moved to Israel at the end of last year.
Silver has been joining the demonstrations week after week. “People will come up to us and yell and curse. I think they’re just shocked, and there’s just a lot of unwillingness to accept that this is what their country is doing,” he said.
A woman named Maya Darnell got in between another honking motorist and the demonstrators. She’s an organizer with Standing Together, a grassroots organization that advocates social justice for all in Israel-Palestine.
“I am perpetually shocked that this is still going on. Consistently, we’ve seen that the Israeli public does not support this war or the government,” she said.
A poll from the Israel Democracy Institute in April found that 68% of Israelis believed that bringing home all the hostages was more important than toppling Hamas. Only 25% of those polled believed the latter was more important. But the Israeli government continues to defy popular opinion. On May 4th, Netanyahu’s cabinet approved a new plan to expand the war. It will see the Israeli military occupy the entirety of the Gaza Strip, flatten even larger swaths of it, and force all of Gaza’s residents into small areas in the south.
“We cannot go back to October 7. There are two main objectives before us: the return of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” said IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir during a visit to Gaza on Sunday.
Israel has enforced a complete blockade on humanitarian aid entering Gaza since March 2nd, following the collapse of the last ceasefire agreement. Under the new plan, Israel will renew aid to the strip, but only in designated “sterile zones.” All members of the cabinet voted in favor, except for Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who wished to see all remaining humanitarian aid depots destroyed by Israeli forces.
Shortly after the plan was approved on May 5th, Netanyahu released a video statement saying that the purpose of the operation was not for Israeli forces to launch raids into Gaza and then retreat, but to establish a “sustained presence.” He also said the population would be relocated “for its own protection.”
“Gaza will be entirely destroyed, civilians will be sent to the south to a humanitarian zone without Hamas or terrorism, and from there they will start to leave in great numbers to third countries,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said at a press conference on May 6th.
On May 16, NBC News reported that the Trump administration was developing a plan to force more than one million Gazans into Libya, citing five people with knowledge of the matter. The plan is reportedly under serious enough consideration for it to have been discussed with Libyan leadership. But following publication of the report, a government spokesperson told NBC News, “these reports are untrue.”
Other countries like Indonesia and Jordan have already been accepting very small numbers of Gazans for medical treatment, but have outright rejected their resettlement. No country has agreed to participate in the forced displacement and relocation of large numbers of Gazans.
The intensification of Israel’s campaign in Gaza has also drawn significant ire from world leaders. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has since labelled Israel a genocidal state. German Chancellor Olaf Sholz stated that any resettlement plans involving the expulsion of Gaza's citizens are "unacceptable." And President Donald Trump has acknowledged that “people are starving” in Gaza, as he skipped Israel on his visit to the Middle East.
Zandman fears the damage to Israel’s international reputation could be catastrophic.
“This is what being an Israeli will mean from now on. It’s not about falafel, it’s not about the high-tech industry or Jaffa. Whatever you want to think about Israel, none of that matters now. Being an Israeli is what we did in Gaza. That’s it.”
