President Shimon Peres delayed his opening speech at the Negev Conference for five minutes in solidarity. Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin halted the work in Parliament. Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen instructed police officers to be understanding. There are reports of traffic coming to a standstill nationwide as hundreds of thousands stopped their daily activities and went out to protest for five minutes, symbolizing almost five years of captivity.

In Jerusalem mother, Aviva Shalit, and father, Noam Shalit, lead a few hundred supporters from their protest tent near the Prime Minister's residence into Kikar Paris intersection. They carried a banner reading "A country that forgets its soldiers will end up with soldiers forgetting their country".

Gilad Shalit (born 28 August 1986) is an Israeli soldier abducted by Palestinian militants in a cross border raid near the Gaza Strip on 25 June 2006 and is being held hostage by Hammas 1,724 days.