Tens of thousands demonstrated in several Israeli cities yesterday, Saturday, to demand the conclusion of a prisoner exchange deal with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the dismissal of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, and holding early elections, while a group of demonstrators this morning closed a main road linking Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
In the city of Tel Aviv, thousands in front of the Ministry of Defense, and the demonstrators chanted against the government headed by Netanyahu, demanding immediate elections and an immediate exchange deal. They raised slogans against Netanyahu and his government and accused him of abandoning prisoners and obstructing the exchange deal.
Official Army Radio said, on Saturday evening, that tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Kaplan Square in downtown Tel Aviv, demanding that the government conclude an immediate exchange deal with Hamas, and Israeli security forces arrested a number of demonstrators.
Yesterday and today
Demonstrators also closed a section of the main Ayalon Street in central Tel Aviv, before the police forcefully opened it, according to the official broadcasting authority, while the Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent reported that Israeli demonstrators blocked the road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Sunday morning to overthrow the government and demand the completion of an exchange deal.
Hebrew sources: Israelis are demonstrating this morning to demand elections and the overthrow of Netanyahu’s government pic.twitter.com/f7f1tYlhAq
– Quds News Network (@qudsn) June 16, 2024
The cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba, and Netanya also witnessed demonstrations in which thousands participated in front of Netanyahu’s house in the city of Caesarea. The police attacked the demonstrators, tore down banners against Netanyahu and his government, and erected barriers to prevent the demonstrators from approaching.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Petah Tikva and Netanya (central), Haifa and the Karkur Junction (north), to demand the conclusion of an exchange deal for the release of all prisoners detained in Gaza.
The newspaper indicated that the demonstrators demanded early elections or the dismissal of Netanyahu’s government.
Contradictions
For the first time since October 7, the Israeli military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, acknowledged that Israel will not be able to return all the prisoners through military operations, and added that the Israeli army will continue to work to create the conditions for the return of the prisoners.
Hagari’s statements contradict previous statements by Netanyahu, in which he affirmed the continuation of military operations until all prisoners are released and what he described as victory is achieved.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, announced the killing of two prisoners in an Israeli bombing, and the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, broadcast pictures of a prisoner killed in an Israeli bombing, and said that reaching an exchange agreement and the occupation’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is the only way. To restore the rest.
Tel Aviv still estimates that there are more than 120 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, while Hamas announced that more than 70 of them were killed in random raids launched by Israel, which holds at least 9,500 Palestinians in its prisons.
Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a war on Gaza that has left more than 122,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
Israel continues its war despite a decision by the UN Security Council to stop it immediately, and orders from the International Court of Justice to end the invasion of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, and to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the miserable humanitarian situation in Gaza.