IDF declares area around military chief’s home a closed zone amid anti-war protests

In an unusual move, the IDF declared the area around Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir’s house a “closed military zone,” following anti-war protests there, according to a social media post on Sunday.

The order, according to a copy circulating online, was signed on Friday by Maj. Gen. Shai Klepper, chief of the Home Front Command. Rotem Sivan, the leader of a protest group representing mothers of combat soldiers, shared the document on Sunday on social media.

Last week, members of a different anti-war group, Standing Together, poured buckets of red paint onto a wall and on the street outside Zamir’s home in Ramot HaShavim, a town adjacent to Hod Hasharon.

The left-wing protesters gathered that day to demand that Zamir refuse to carry out any plans to occupy the Gaza Strip as the government proceeds with an operation to take over Gaza City.

The military said that “the decision to declare the area a closed military zone was made based on professional and security considerations.”

It is unclear why the military resorted to an order signed by a major general, instead of the police outlawing such protests.

תושבי רמות השבים, מושב בשרון, התעוררו הבוקר לגלות שהם גרים בשטח צבאי סגור.
מדוע?
כי הרמטכ”ל מפחד מהאימהות.
אחרי שיצא אל האמהות שעומדות מול ביתו, והבטיח לנו שישמור על הילדים שלנו, אותם הוא שולח לתוך מלכודת מוות, הוא מורה לאלוף פיקוד העורף להכריז על ביתו כשטח צבאי סגור.

צבא שמפחד… pic.twitter.com/JuXiZ2hL6T

— Rotem Sivan (@DrRotemSivan) September 7, 2025

Before the operation to conquer Gaza City was approved, Zamir was widely said to object to government plans to take over the entire Strip, saying the policy would endanger the lives of soldiers as well as the remaining hostages held by Hamas. This drew ire from Defense Minister Israel Katz and others in the government.

But Zamir reportedly said in a recent meeting with hostage families that “the operation will be conducted by me, with responsibility toward the troops and the hostages,” according to Channel 12.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir surveys Gaza City and reviews operational plans with IDF commanders as the military prepares to advance its offensive in the city, September 3, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

“I believe in the operational plan. The people of Israel should know that I state, and will continue to state, my professional opinion. The hostages are on my mind. I am acting in the most responsible way possible,” Zamir reportedly said.

Since the operation received a green light, families of hostages and their supporters have intensified their campaign urging the government to strike a ceasefire deal to release the captives, holding two separate nationwide days of protest in addition to weekly Saturday night rallies.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.

Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire that ran from January to March 2025, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May 2025 as a “gesture” to the United States. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.

Eight hostages have been rescued alive from captivity by troops, and the bodies of 51 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors. The body of a soldier who was killed in 2014 has also been recovered.