12/29/2024–|Last updated: 12/29/202408:12 AM (Mecca time)
Demonstrations took place in Tel Aviv and a number of Israeli cities yesterday, Saturday, to demand an exchange deal for prisoners and detainees with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and participants raised slogans criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accusing him of working to thwart the negotiations.
Haaretz newspaper said that a number of representatives in the Knesset participated in the demonstrations, and leaders in the Israeli opposition accused Netanyahu’s government of sacrificing detainees and soldiers in the Gaza Strip and not wanting to end the war.
In Tel Aviv, families of detainees in Gaza led two major demonstrations, one in front of the Ministry of Defense headquarters, and the other in “Kidnappers Square” in the center of the city, according to Haaretz.
The newspaper reported that the cities of Haifa, Herzliya, Netanya, and Beersheba witnessed the participation of thousands of Israelis in demonstrations demanding the conclusion of an immediate deal with the Palestinian factions.
Protesters gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, demanding the return of detainees in the Gaza Strip and refusing to conclude a partial deal in stages.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office denied the validity of what was being said about the possibility of concluding a mini-deal as a goodwill gesture towards the United States before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, describing the matter as pure lies.
Earlier on Saturday, the families of detainees in Gaza, in a conference they organized in front of the Ministry of Defense headquarters, accused Netanyahu and his government of obstructing the completion of the exchange deal for “political considerations.”
The opposition and the families of the detainees accuse Netanyahu of obstructing reaching an agreement to maintain his position and government, as extremist ministers – including Ministers of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – threaten to withdraw from the government and topple it if a complete end to the war on Gaza is accepted.
More than once, negotiations on the exchange deal, which are being brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and America, faltered as a result of Netanyahu’s insistence on “continuing control over the Philadelphia border axis between Gaza and Egypt and the Rafah crossing in Gaza, and preventing the return of Palestinian faction fighters to northern Gaza by searching the returnees through the Netzarim axis in the middle of the Strip.” .
For its part, Hamas insists on a complete withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip and a complete cessation of the war in order to accept any agreement.
Tel Aviv holds more than 10,300 Palestinians in its prisons, while it is estimated that there are 100 Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip, while Hamas announced the killing of dozens of detainees in random Israeli raids.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 153,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded – most of them children and women – and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.