Protests escalate as frustration grows over protracted hostage talks
Protests and actions for the hostages have been ramping up in recent weeks, growing in number and intensity as hostage negotiations faltered and the IDF pulled out of southern Gaza, leading many to ask what is being done to bring the hostages home.
“The war has been waged at a low intensity for a long time while all the military achievements are undone without reaching the goals of the war – a hostage deal and ensuring the future of the state of Israel,” said protest organization The Day After.
“In two weeks we will celebrate Remembrance Day and Independence Day, and the thought of the ministers in the government of neglect, who are preventing a hostage deal, walking into cemeteries full of our friends, who fell defending the country, with their heads held high is unimaginable.”
“We have stopped playing nice,” they said. “Whoever abandons the hostages and our future will be met with significant and fierce nonviolent resistance,” the organization added.
“This government is not doing everything it can to win the war,” said Nadav Salzberger, one of the leaders of protest organization The Change Generation.
“There is no Rafah operation, it has been dragging on for months. There is no serious discussion of the day after in Gaza, and Hamas is enjoying this neglect as it allows them to return to places in Gaza the IDF had cleared. This government, through inaction, is going to allow the return of Hamas to power in Gaza,” he said.
Numerous protests, rallies, and installations took place in the lead up to, and during Passover, including the night of the Seder, with more planned.
Four were arrested in Jerusalem Wednesday night at protests that broke out after Hamas released a video of Goldberg-Polin in captivity, led by Goldberg-Polin’s friends. Protests also broke out in Tel Aviv, where protesters blocked Begin Road.
The protests in Jerusalem were exceptionally intense,
IDF added.
Over the last few months, the soldiers, in cooperation with the Yahalom Unit and combat engineers, located and destroyed over 20 km. of terror tunnels in the corridor area.
In one of the attacks this week, the Nahal Brigade forces identified two terrorists attempting to launch rockets toward Israeli territory, and the air force killed them.
The IAF also destroyed the rocket launching platform and the ammunition warehouse in which one of the terrorists was based following the launch attempt.
In another incident, the IDF reported that IAF fighter jets pounded terrorist infrastructure in the northern Gaza area of Shati from which Hamas terrorists had fired rockets against IDF troops over in central Gaza.
On Wednesday, the air force also killed a Hamas sniper terrorist cell in the central Gaza area of Nuseirat.
Over the last 24 hours, the air force struck over 30 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, including weapons storage facilities, terrorist cells, military positions, and additional terrorist infrastructure.
In the North, the IDF carried out multiple rounds of attacks against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, while the terror group fired at least seven times into different parts of northern Israel.
While the attacks remained ongoing on both sides, they were slightly less aggressive than Wednesday’s attacks, which led to direct hits by Hezbollah against Israeli houses in Avivim, and dozens of reprisal attacks by Israel against the terror group.