JERUSALEM, Nov 4 (Portal) – Police held back protesters outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Saturday, amid widespread anger over failures that led to the deadly attack by Hamas gunmen on communities around the Gaza Strip last month led.
A crowd of hundreds waved blue and white Israeli flags and chanted “Jail now!” through police lines around Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.
The protest, which coincided with a poll showing more than three-quarters of Israelis think Netanyahu should resign, underscores growing public anger at their political and security leaders.
Netanyahu has not yet taken personal responsibility for the mistakes that enabled the surprise attack in which hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking at least 240 hostage.
As the initial shock wore off, public anger grew. Many families of the hostages held in Gaza bitterly criticized the government’s response and called for their loved ones to be returned home.
In Tel Aviv, thousands demonstrated, waving flags and holding photos of some prisoners in Gaza and placards with slogans such as “Release the hostages now at any cost,” while the crowd chanted “Bring them home now.”
[1/3]Protesters against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gather near his residence as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues in Jerusalem on November 4, 2023. Portal/Ammar Awad acquires license rights
Ofri Bibas-Levy, whose brother was taken hostage by Hamas along with his four-year-old son Ariel and 10-month-old son Kfir, told Portal she came to show support for her family.
“We don’t know where they are, we don’t know what condition they’re being kept in. I don’t know if Kfir gets food, I don’t know if Ariel gets enough food. He’s still very small. “Baby,” said Bibas-Levy.
Since the attack, Israel has launched an intensive air and ground offensive in Gaza, killing more than 9,000 people in the Hamas-controlled area and reducing large parts of the enclave to rubble, according to health authorities.
Even before the war, Netanyahu was a divisive figure, battling corruption allegations that he denies and pushing through a plan to limit the powers of the judiciary that brought hundreds of thousands to the streets to protest.
On Saturday, a poll by Israel’s Channel 13 television showed that 76% of Israelis believed that Netanyahu, now serving a record sixth term as prime minister, should resign, and 64% believed that the country should immediately after the war should hold elections.
When asked who bore most of the blame for the attack, 44% of Israelis blamed Netanyahu, while 33% blamed the military chief of staff and senior IDF officials and 5% blamed the defense minister, according to the poll.
Reporting by Emily Rose; Edited by Ros Russell and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab