Some of the demonstrators carried large yellow balloons. Others carried national flags or large banners with slogans, or portraits of loved ones who had been abducted by Hamas. Fresh yellow ribbons were tied around area poles.

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Radio announcements before and during the demonstration mistakenly repeated that the gathering was being held opposite the Prime Minister’s Residence. The building officially designated as the residence has been unoccupied for almost three years and is indeed around the corner from the demonstration. But it has been gutted, and renovations and repairs that began during the premiership of Naftali Bennett have been abandoned.

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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved his official residence to his private home, more than two blocks away, although he and his wife spend a lot of time in their other Caesarea home.

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The former official residence is now seldom under guard, as is the former official residence of the president of the Supreme Court, less than three minutes’ walk away on Balfour Street. This is because Justice Minister Yariv Levin remains intent on reforming the judicial system and refuses to appoint the person who would become president of the Supreme Court, in accordance with the traditional seniority system. But the barriers to traffic in Balfour and the intersecting Smolenskin Street remain.

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Grapevine: 'Achshav!'

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

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