Thousands of Israelis took to the streets again on Saturday to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing religious government.
This is happening as there is no sign of a let-up in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza almost six months in.
In Tel Aviv, demonstrators called for early elections and the release of the remaining hostages held by the Palestinian extremist organisation Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to media reports.
Protests also took place in other cities, including Jerusalem and Haifa.
In Tel Aviv, protesters clashed with police, according to police. Sixteen people were arrested, according to media reports.
In Jerusalem, hundreds of protesters broke through a barrier near Mr Netanyahu’s official residence.
Opponents of the government are planning several days of major demonstrations in Jerusalem from Sunday onwards. They plan to demand the government’s resignation.
A former hostage, whose husband is still being held in Gaza, addressed the demonstration in Tel Aviv, calling on Mr Netanyahu to “Bring them home!”
The woman called on the premier to give the Israeli negotiating team a “broad mandate” in talks on an agreement to release the remaining hostages in return for a ceasefire and a release of Palestinian prisoners.
The ongoing Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre committed by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in southern Israel on October 7. They killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took some 250 more hostage.
Israel responded by targeting densely populated Gaza with massive airstrikes and launching a ground operation in the sealed-off coastal area at the end of October.
More than 32,500 Palestinians are said to have been killed as a result so far, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels due to the very limited amounts of aid reaching the civilian population.
Some 110 hostages were released in exchange for some 400 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as part of a temporary truce agreement brokered by Qatar, the United States, and Egypt in November.
However, efforts to facilitate another ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages have stalled repeatedly.
On Saturday, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, and France again called for an immediate ceasefire to ensure an influx of aid into the embattled Gaza Strip.
During talks in Cairo, the ministers discussed the importance of an immediate truce agreement, aid deliveries, and the release of hostages kept in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri told a press conference after the meeting.
Mr Shoukri added that he had also discussed with French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné and their Jordanian counterpart Ayman al-Safadi the risks of a planned Israeli ground offensive in Gaza’s city of Rafah near the Egyptian border.
According to the IDF, Hamas has re-established itself in the hospital since Israeli soldiers first cleared the area in November.
Around 200 Hamas fighters have been killed, and more than 500 suspects have been arrested in the latest operation, according to the IDF.
(dpa/NAN)
