A smaller group of anti-government demonstrators opposed a crackdown on anti-war protesters and called for a ceasefire.
Thousands of people have gathered in Tel Aviv to demand the release of Israeli and foreign prisoners held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and to criticize the Israeli government for its handling of the crisis.
Many of Saturday’s protesters were friends and family of the prisoners and called for their immediate return.
“Mr Prime Minister, dear cabinet members, don’t talk to me about conquest, don’t talk to me about flattening [Gaza]. Don’t talk at all. Just act… bring her home now,” Noam Perry, whose father was kidnapped from the city of Nir Oz, told the crowd at the protest, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
“You’re asking us who our anger is directed at, namely all of humanity… but especially those who are responsible for us, those who have a contract with us,” said Jack Levy, another protester.
More than 240 people, including Israeli soldiers and civilians as well as foreigners, were kidnapped during an attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities.
Israeli left-wing activists stage a demonstration near the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv on November 11, 2023, calling for a ceasefire amid ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas [AHMAD GHARABLI AFP]A few hundred Israeli left-wing activists, both Arab and Jewish, held a separate demonstration near the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, calling for a ceasefire even as crackdowns on anti-war protesters and protests continued.
Calls for a ceasefire are growing from citizens around the world as well as world leaders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of a ceasefire “without the return of our hostages.” The United States has instead advocated for “humanitarian pauses” to allow civilians to escape and aid deliveries.
More than 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched an airstrikes campaign on October 7, which was followed by a devastating ground offensive that also spread fighting to some of Gaza City’s key hospitals.
In his remarks on Saturday, Netanyahu ruled out a role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) government in Gaza once the war against Hamas is over.
“There has to be something else,” he said when asked whether the PA, which has partial administrative control in the occupied West Bank, would be allowed to rule Gaza after the war.
“There will be no civil authority that raises its children to hate Israel, kill Israelis and eradicate the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that the Palestinian Authority should take back control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas, with international actors possibly taking on a role in the meantime.