TEL AVIV - Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv late Thursday, putting pressure on the government to secure the release of two soldiers captured by Hezbollah and a third held captive by Gaza militants.

"We do not abandon soldiers on the battlefield," read white banners emblazoned in red hanging behind the stage in Rabin Square and carried in the sombre crowd aloft by teenagers, the elderly, mothers, fathers, children and scouts.

"We ask all the world to release the hostages," cried handwritten placards, jostling alongside flags with the faces of the soldiers superimposed on the blue and white Israeli flag.

Police and organisers of the rally -- friends of the families of the three servicemen -- had said they expected 50,000 people to attend from all over the country, but actress Osnat Vishinsky announced a massive 100,000 had attended.

Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were snatched by Shiite militiamen from Hezbollah in northern Israel on July 12, in a cross-border attack that left another eight soldiers killed and sparked Israel's month-long war in Lebanon.

Gilad Shalit, who turned 20 on Monday, was snatched by Palestinain militants in a June 25 cross-border attack in which two other soldiers were killed and which sparked Israel's ongoing two-month offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Family members, struggling with their emotions, addressed the rally as a video clips of their loved ones played on a giant screen. Conscript soldiers from Shalit's unit, guns slung over their shoulders, also attended the rally.

"We can't say what you mean to us. We are not alone. We know you are with us and we feel it," said Karmit Goldwasser, who married Ehud less than a year ago, told the giant crowd to a sea of applause.

She called on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and 15 countries in the UN Security Council that backed a resolution establishing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to take action.

"Start to do something to bring our soldiers home," she said.

The chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel Lau, made a direct appeal to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to return the country's missing sons.

"Nasrallah, you are a father yourself. So you understand the mother's feeling and emotion as she waits to hug her son. So leave the way of war to the way of peace and return back the children," he told the crowd.

"This is a rally to call for the release of the soldiers, a call to our government, to the Lebanon government, to the world," Benny Regev, Eldad's 35-year-old accountant brother told AFP.

He urged the Israeli government to negotiate as the only way to secure the release of his brother, now missing for one and a half months. The state has officially refused to talk to Hezbollah.

"We have heard nothing at all. Give us a sign of life. The worst thing is not knowing. We simply don't know," he said.

Much-loved Israeli singers Yardena Arazi, Corinne El-Al, Rami Kleinstein and David d'Or belted out haunting ballads in the square, named after ex-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin who was shot dead here in 1995.

"It is not over. We will stroke their faces again. We will quiet the pain of distance. It is not over. Our heart beats for you. The moment will come," sang Kleinstein in a debut performanace of a new song.

Israeli reservists who have protested against the management of the 34-day war in Lebanon, which failed in its stated aims of retrieving Goldwasser and Regev, and stopping Hezbollah rocket attacks, also joined the rally.

On the sidelines of the protest, dozens handed out leaflets saying "if you fail, resign" alluding to calls on Olmert, Defence Minister Amir Peretz and chief of staff Dan Halutz to step down over the war in Lebanon.

One group, dubbing itself www.olmertgohome.co.il unfurled a banner demanding that Olmert, Peretz and Halutz, Gilad, Ehud and Eldad "go home".

"Olmert, Peretz and Halutz are Israel's biggest problem," said protestor Kagan Ilya, from the town of Bat Yam, a 35-year-old computer technician.

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