Israel – Israeli police suppressed demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday who had called for a prisoner exchange deal with Palestinian factions, and arrested a relative of prisoners held in Gaza.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper (private) said that the police suppressed the demonstrators in Tel Aviv, following they tried to close one of the main streets in the Ayalon area as a form of protest.
The police used “tear gas and waste water to disperse the demonstrators, and also beat some of them,” according to the official broadcasting authority.
“The police also arrested at least one protester in Tel Aviv, who is a relative of prisoners held in Gaza,” according to the same source.
The Authority pointed out that “the demonstrators in Tel Aviv set fires as a form of protest to pressure the government to conclude a prisoner exchange deal.”
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv and other cities across the country, demanding a prisoner exchange deal and early elections.
Yesterday, Saturday, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth (private) quoted informed sources, which it did not name, as saying that the negotiating delegation “will leave next Monday to continue negotiations on the deal.”
On Friday, Mossad chief David Barnea headed to the capital, Doha, to hold meetings with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani regarding the prisoner exchange agreement and ceasefire in Gaza, according to Hebrew media.
After Barnea returned to Tel Aviv on the same day, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the negotiating delegation would leave next week for Qatar to continue negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal with the Palestinian factions in Gaza.
According to official Israeli reports, indirect negotiations between Tel Aviv and the factions movement have resumed to reach an agreement to exchange Israeli prisoners for Palestinian prisoners and a ceasefire in Gaza.
In turn, the official broadcasting authority quoted unnamed political sources as saying that “the head of Mossad informed the mediators that they are optimistic that Israel will accept the hostage deal proposal.”
For months, mediation efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and the Hamas movement that would include an exchange of prisoners from both sides and a ceasefire, leading to the entry of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian sector.
However, mediation efforts were hampered by Netanyahu’s refusal to respond to the factions’ demands to stop the war.
On May 6, the Palestinian factions had previously agreed to a proposal for an agreement to stop the war and exchange prisoners, which was put forward by Egypt and Qatar, but Israel rejected it, claiming that it “did not meet its conditions,” and began invading the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which was rejected by the international community.
Anatolia
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2024-07-07 21:10:33
