Hundreds of 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 again.
Israeli police carried out dozens of arrests and used water cannons on demonstrators who gathered on Sunday for the national demonstration with organizers signaling nearly half a million people who manifested themselves in Tel Aviv by Nightfall – one of the largest and fiercest since the start of the war almost two years ago.
Israeli schools, companies and public transport have been closed, with demonstrations organized in major cities as part of a national day of action by two groups representing a number of families of captives and bereaved families.
The restaurants and cafes have also closed, while the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that dozens of artists, celebrities and Israeli athletes expressed their support and joined the strike.
The main unions, including lawyers, doctors and the business forum, as well as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also confirmed their participation in the strike.
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.
The opposition chief, Yair Lapid, also participated in the strike.
“We are closing the country today. Because our hostages are not pawns that the government is authorized to sacrifice for the war effort, they are citizens that the government must return to its family,” Lapid told demonstrators in a video published on X.
“They will not stop us, they will not tire us, they will not exhaust us. We will continue to fight until the hostages go home, there is an agreement, the war ends,” he added.
Former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, also joined the strike.
“We have a supreme duty to bring everyone back home,” said Gallant in the statements carried by the Yedioth Ahronoth daily.
“There is only one way to accomplish this mission: first to return the hostages, then continue to eliminate Hamas to the last of them.”
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.
The presidents of Israeli universities also attended the demonstrations to demand that the government of Netanyahu reaching a cease-fire and a captive exchange agreement in the Gaza Strip.
Last March, all universities and colleges in Israel signed a letter addressed to Netanyahu. “We have clearly declared that the government had to conclude the agreement and bring everyone back,” said Daniel Chamovitz, president of Ben Gourion du Neguev University in his speech.
“It was not a political affirmation; it was a moral and conscientious demand,” he said.
Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat and consul general in New York The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to disorders. “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 delusions of REDEMBER THE MIDDEN-East», He told Tel Aviv Tribune de Tel Aviv
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 the 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 southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
