Tel Aviv crowd celebrates potential Hamas ceasefire

With a heart-shaped balloon in her hand, Gili Coheb-Taguri, a 49-year-old material scientist wearing a Trump mask and a suit matching the president’s sartorial tastes, posed for the array of cameras and smartphones.

- By Nasin BuLos

GILI COHEB-TAGURI wears a handmade origami mask of President Trump at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.

(CHRIS MCGRATH Getty Images)

“This? It's an origami mask,” she said to an inquiring passerby. “And yes, I made it myself.”

Coheb-Taguri was one of the thousands whocame out on Saturday evening to Hostage Square, the courtyard in Tel Aviv that has become the site of weekly protests demanding the Israeli government secure the return of hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

The rally, the first to be held after Hamas accepted President Trump's ceasefire proposal on Friday, was just one of similar events taking place across Israel. Though the mood was somber, it nevertheless felt more hopeful than most other protests Coheb-Taguri had attended in the last two years.

“The reason I wore this costume is to thank Trump for what he did. People have been so depressed and when they see Trump here, they smile,” she said through the mask before she took it off.

“The key point for us is the hostages,” she said. “It’s been two years and we want them back. We want our life back.”

The U.S. 20-point plan, which was drafted by the Trump administration with input from Israeland a number of Arab and Muslim nations, would see the Palestinian militant group release all 48 hostages it still has in its custody and hand over the reins of Gaza to a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee overseen by a “Board of Peace” led by Trump.