Thousands of demonstrators in Israel have taken up the streets to demand the end of the war in Gaza and an agreement to release captives detained in the besieged enclave, while the army intensifies attacks against Gaza City to force tens of thousands of hungry Palestinians to flee.
Israeli police carried out dozens of arrests and used water cannons on demonstrators who gathered on Sunday for the national demonstration – one of the fiercest since the tumult of more than six captives found dead in Gaza last September.
Israeli schools, companies and public transport have been closed, with demonstrations planned in large cities as part of a national day of action by two groups representing a number of families of captives and bereaved families.
The demonstrators, who fear that new fights will endanger the 50 captives which should remain in Gaza, of which about 20 are considered alive, have sung: “We do not win a war against the hostages.”
“Military pressure does not bring the hostages back – that only kills them,” said former captive Arbel Yehoud during a demonstration in the so -called “hostage square” of Tel Aviv. “The only way to bring them back is to make an agreement, at the same time, without games.”
Sunday rallies occurred only a few days after the Israel security firm approved the plans to move forward on Gaza City, almost two years after a genocidal war that devastated the Gaza Strip, left a large part of its population on the brink of famine and led Israel to be more and more isolated.
During the demonstration in Tel Aviv, activists deployed a huge Israeli flag covered with faces of captives still held in Gaza. The demonstrators also blocked the main roads, in particular the highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where the tires were on and traffic stopped, according to local relationships.
The removal forum and missing families, which represents the parents of those who have been held, said a national strike.
“We will close the country today with a single call: bringing the 50 hostages, putting an end to the war,” said the group, committing to degenerate their campaign with a protest tent near the Gaza border.
“If we don’t put them off now, we will lose them forever,” warned the group.
The Demonstrator of Penso, 50, echoed this feeling in his remarks at the AFP news agency: “It is probably the last minute that we have to save the hostages.”
“The Israelis are not alike.
Many companies and municipalities have gone on strike as a demonstration of solidarity. The two great theaters of Tel Aviv also interrupted their performance. In Jerusalem, companies closed when demonstrators joined the steps. “It is time to end the war. It is time to release all hostages. And it is time to help Israel recover and head for a more stable Middle East,” said Doron Wilfand, a 54-year-old tourist guide, speaking to AFP.
The aunt of Israeli-German hostage, Alon Ohel, pleaded for his rescue in the demonstration in Tel Aviv, describing his disastrous situation: “It is linked in the chains, seriously injured and likely to lose sight of. He suffers from serious head injuries and shrapnel throughout his body, and he is alone.
Several former captives of Hamas, published during a ceasefire in the spring, held a bin bearing: “Bring them home now!”
The Israeli Hollywood actress Gal Gadot, 40, also visited “hostage square” to meet relatives of the captives. A video shared by the Otages and Disappeared Families Forum has shown that Gadot comforts the woman of a captive.
During a gathering in the square, the sister of an agricultural student in Nepal who was caught in captivity by Hamas spoke publicly for the first time. Setting tears, she said that the family had not received any signs of life for almost two years.
Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera de Tel Aviv that, although the demonstrations are distributed across the country, the participation rate has remained relatively limited.
“The number of people is quite small … I expect it to increase during the day,” he said, noting that many shops, restaurants and universities were closed, public transport working half. “It is not a general strike in the sense that people are considering, but it is palpable, it is tangible, you can feel it in the air,” he said.
On the response of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the troubles, Pinkas was scathing. “Most Prime Ministers have resigned after October 7 … He is not only another Prime Minister. He only cares about his survival. He is motivated by certain messianic illusions of redrawn from the Middle East. ”
Pinkas added that Netanyahu deviating the anger of the public by blaming “the elites” and a “deep cabal” rather than taking responsibility.
The Israeli government condemns demonstrations
President Isaac Herzog expressed his support for the return of captives, urging international pressure on Hamas rather than taking into account the calls to stop the war.
But government personalities were unleashed during the demonstrations.
The Minister of Israeli Far -right Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, denounced them as “a perverse and harmful campaign that plays in the hands of Hamas”, while the Minister of Culture Miki Zohar said that blocking the roads “is a serious error and a reward for the enemy”.
Benny Gantz, an opposition chief, sentenced the government to have “attacked hostage families” while “being responsible for the captivity of their children by Hamas for almost two years”.
The police have strengthened its presence across the country, warning that no “disturbance of public order” would be tolerated. Demonstrations also took place near the Gaza border, notably in Be’eri, a Kibbutz seriously struck during the attack led by Hamas in October 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in the attack against the south of Israel which triggered what militants say they are the war of Israel.
Nearly 62,000 Palestinians were killed, the majority of women and children, in an Israeli offensive which has been nicknamed a genocide by several rights defense groups.
