Families of Israeli hostages join anti-government protests
ISRAEL has seen the biggest protests against its government since the outbreak of the Gaza war as hostage families joined forces with pro-democracy demonstrators across the country.
The families of the more than 130 hostages that are still held in Gaza have, until now, separated themselves from the anti-government protests that peaked last year against Benjamin Netanyahu’s Right-wing coalition.
But six months into the war and with no sign of a hostage deal, the two groups came together on Saturday night as tens of thousands took to the streets to call for an election.
Nadav Salzberger, from the “Change Generation” movement, which is leading the Tel Aviv protests, told The Telegraph: “What we saw yesterday was an eruption of underground currents that have reached the boiling point, hundreds of thousands of refugees across Israel, the families of the 134 hostages whose dream to see their loved ones draws further away, and Israelis fed up with the most incompetent government in the country’s history.”
Mr Salzberger added: “People understand that without public pressure, the election will not be put forward, and a hostage deal is less likely to take place.”
There are still about 200,000 Israelis displaced from both the north and the south of Israel in the wake of the Hamas invasion of Oct 7, in which 1,200, mostly civilians, were murdered and 250 or more taken hostage to Gaza.
More than 30,000 Gazans have since been killed in Israel’s retaliatory attacks, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Protest numbers had been a fraction of what they were last year, but Israelis are being pushed to the edge, according to Dana Oren-yanay, the deputy mayor of Herzliya, a suburb north of Tel Aviv.
There, they saw four times the usual war-time numbers of about 2,000. That was still smaller than the pre-war number of about 20,000, but she said it shows “the way the wind is blowing”. Yesterday, another huge protest broke out near the Knesset in Jerusalem with thousands calling for new elections.
It came during a speech by Mr Netanyahu vowing to continue the war and claiming new elections will be a victory for Hamas. The parliament has enraged the population by preparing to go on a recess at the end of this week.
Yesterday, teams from Israel and Hamas met with mediators from Egypt to discuss a hostage deal. Sources told The Telegraph they hoped Egypt may have more success than Qatar.