Tel Aviv – Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, especially in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, took part in demonstrations demanding a prisoner exchange deal and protesting the killing of more Israelis held in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported, quoting a police source, today, Sunday, that “100,000 people participated in the demonstration in Kaplan, Tel Aviv.”
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted the organizers of the protests and the families of the prisoners as saying that “700,000 people demonstrated throughout Israel tonight, and that the number of participants in the main demonstration in Kaplan in Tel Aviv reached 550,000 people.”
Israeli protesters closed a main road in Tel Aviv, the entrance to Jerusalem, and a central street in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, while others demonstrated in Karmiel and Rehovot.
Protesters, including families of prisoners held in Gaza, also closed the Ayalon Highway, demanding a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas. The road was later reopened to traffic by police.
In Jerusalem, protesters completely blocked the entrance to the city to traffic for more than two hours, while the police brought in more officers, in addition to a water cannon, and announced in a statement issued later that it had “arrested 5 rioters.” Before protesters closed the entrance to the city, dozens had demonstrated in front of Netanyahu’s home in the city.
One of the protest groups said: “When Netanyahu says: ‘Whoever wants the deal does not kill the hostages. [في إشارة إلى اتهام نتنياهو حركة الفصائل بقتلهم]“He speaks for himself and for those who actually voted to sacrifice the hostages.”
“They could have been brought home alive, and no matter how we manage it, the Israeli government and its leader deliberately sacrificed the kidnapped to death,” she stressed, noting that “six suffered for eleven months, until they were killed less than a week ago.” The families stressed that they want to conclude “a deal now.”
This comes as criticism is mounting against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is being held responsible for the deaths of six Israeli detainees held by Hamas, whose bodies were found inside a tunnel in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu threatened on Sunday to make the factions’ movement “pay the price” after the Israeli army found the bodies of 6 detainees in the Gaza Strip, and 3 police officers were killed in a shooting operation carried out this morning near the Tarqumiya checkpoint, south of the West Bank, while Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to “reduce the area of the Gaza Strip and cleanse the area located two kilometers deep along the Strip.”
In his first comment on the return of the bodies of the six detainees, Netanyahu said in a video statement issued by his office that “the factions movement does not want to reach a deal,” and continued threateningly: “I say to the fighters of the factions movement who killed our hostages, and I say to their leaders: Your blood is forfeited. We will not rest and we will not be silent. We will pursue you, we will reach you and we will hold you accountable.”
For its part, the Histadrut, the Israeli Federation of Trade Unions, announced this evening a comprehensive economic strike in Israel, tomorrow, Monday, after deliberations during which it discussed taking this step, in response to the call of the Forum of Families of Prisoners and Hostages held in the Gaza Strip, to pressure Netanyahu’s government and push it to conclude a prisoner exchange deal with the factions movement.
Source: Agencies
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2024-09-02 00:40:56
