Frustration is mounting as thousands of Israelis protest the government’s failure to secure the release of prisoners in Gaza.
Some 750,000 Israelis took to the streets in one of Israel’s largest ever protests, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government reach a deal to free the remaining captives in Gaza.
The record number of protesters comes a week after the Israeli military announced it had recovered the bodies of six captives from a tunnel in southern Gaza.
Family members of Israeli prisoners and groups representing them accuse Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government of failing to reach a truce agreement that would have secured their release.
More than 100 Palestinian prisoners remain in Gaza, but about a third of them are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military. A total of 105 prisoners were released by Hamas in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails under a deal reached in November.
Palestinian fighters led by Hamas captured about 240 people following an attack in southern Israel on October 7. At least 1,139 people were killed in the attack.
Since then, Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza and destroyed large swathes of the coastal enclave, in a campaign that has drawn international condemnation. Israel has also killed more than 600 people in the occupied West Bank and arrested nearly 10,000 Palestinians.
Record number of protesters
According to organizers, 500,000 people took part in the rallies in Tel Aviv and another 250,000 joined rallies in other cities across the country.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, because the channel has been banned in Israel by the government, said most protesters say they will continue to protest until the government listens to their demands and changes its policy.
“Back-to-back protests over the past week have seen unprecedented crowds, but Netanyahu maintains that military pressure remains the primary means of bringing the remaining captives home, and a deal to secure their release is still not in sight,” Salhut reported.
Danielle Aloni, a freed captive, spoke at the Tel Aviv rally Saturday night and said: “Mr. Prime Minister, a few days ago, in front of the families of the captives, we said: ‘Sorry that we can’t bring them back alive. But what kind of forgiveness is that if you have no intention of changing your ways?'” before adding: “We will not forgive.”
Libby Lenkinski, vice president for public engagement at the New Israel Fund, says a growing number of Israelis recognize that a lasting ceasefire is the only way to achieve it.
According to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) Project, there have been an average of 113 protests per month in Israel since October last year.
“Groups of protesters have been calling for a ceasefire since November and December (last year), and I think their numbers have grown pretty steadily,” Lenkinski told Tel Aviv Tribune in an interview from New York.
She said the number of protesters had “increased dramatically over the past week,” with a growing number of Israelis now protesting, understanding that a ceasefire is actually the only way for the captives to return to Israel.
“I think it’s now a pretty widespread idea among the protesters. You see a growing number of Israelis who want this to stop, whether they’re on the streets or not,” she said.
