Activists set cars alight in pro-hostage ‘day of disruption’

She later told Channel 12: "Our car is gone. We support the hostages and the families, but this causes hate."

Another Jerusalem resident, Talya Levavi Ehrlich, added that the smoke from burning tyres came through her window: “One of the firefighters said that had the trees not been wet from the night’s dew, the house could have been burned as well.

“I don’t understand why a mass protest must happen in a residential neighbourhood with narrow roads.”

The protests have been condemned by politicians across the ideological spectrum, as well as by police. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir denounced the “wave of terror arson this morning near the prime minister’s home”. Justice Minister Yariv Levin also referred to the acts as “terrorism”.

Likewise, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tweeted: “I condemn the torching of vehicles in Jerusalem, but I condemn much more a government that abandons hostages to their deaths in Gaza."

Blue and White-National Unity chair Benny Gantz said that “the protests and solidarity with the families of the hostages today are a democratic right and a moral duty of every citizen," but added: "Burning vehicles and any form of violence, by an unrepresentative minority, does not advance the return of the hostages and only harms the determined and important public struggle."

A spokesperson for the Israel police labelled the fires “criminality under the guise of protest”, saying: “These actions have nothing to do with lawful protest, they are the acts of lawbreakers behaving like criminals.”