About 300 thousand protesters They took to the streets of Tel Aviv to cry out against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahutarget of the numerous protests that this Sunday have crossed the country due to the death of six hostages in Gaza A few hours before the Army recover their bodies.
“If my government does not do everything in its power to bring the hostages back, even if it means paying a very high price, I don’t think this country can continue to exist,” says Tal Horowitz, 45, lamenting that she feels unprotected as an Israeli after almost eleven months of war in Loop where 97 captives are still in the hands of the Islamist organization Hamas.
This morning, the news that six hostages whose bodies were recovered by the Army in a tunnel in the south of the Strip – all of them killed “with several shots at close range” just 48 to 72 hours earlier according to the autopsy revealed by the Ministry of Health – inflamed the spirits of Israelis who believe that a ceasefire agreement would have prevented their deaths.
The event sparked protests across the country, with its epicenter in Tel Aviv, and which also reached cities such as Jerusalem or Haifa, where many of those in attendance see an unprecedented opportunity to pressure the government into reaching a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the attendance in Tel Aviv is around 300,000 people. On the outskirts of the city, protesters blocked the highwaysgoing so far as to create barricades of burning tires to do so.
Thousands of people in the northern port city of Haifa also blocked access to the city by waving the national flag.
The protests are set to continue throughout the week, as Israel’s largest trade union organisation, the Histadrut, has announced a general strike starting tomorrow, Monday, which will include Tel Aviv’s international airport.
Young people join the protests
“I come here almost every week and I can say that this is at least ten times greater than the protests “We do it every Saturday,” says Roni Ben Aharon, who says that together with Horowitz they have been demonstrating at least once a week since January 4.
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Both agree that not only the volume of the protest, but also its composition has changed this Sunday due to what happened this morning: both see many youths in the crowd, something not so common in the demonstrations that Tel Aviv hosts on Saturdays, where the attendees are mostly adults and relatives of hostages.
Elisa, an elderly woman of Argentine descent, has the same impression after attending the protests weekly for almost a year: “This is an earthquake, I have never seen so many people in the streets,” she explains excitedly.
Elisa also sees that the presence of young people has meant a change with respect to the weekly demonstrations that take place in the already known as “Hostage Square” of Tel Aviv.
Among the protesters are seen groups of teenagers, university students and even groups of scouts carrying banners with messages such as “You are the leader, you are the culprit”, although many, minors, prefer not to address the media.
Demand for a ceasefire
“Without a doubt, it was because of the lack of agreement that they were killed,” Elisa laments.
The ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue without a clear horizon and many protesters see in the Prime Minister’s demands – to control the Philadelphia corridor that separates Gaza from Egypt and the Netzarim, which now separates northern and southern Gaza – the biggest impediment to achieving the return of the captives.
Michal and Ofri, both in their 30s, believe that if the government’s decision is between achieving a “total victory” in Gaza – as Netanyahu has been advocating for months – or rescuing those kidnapped on October 7 who are still in the Strip – of whom thirty are already dead, according to army estimates – bringing the captives back should take priority.
The demand to control the Philadelphia corridor has taken on special importance in the protests, since on Thursday, the day in which the National Institute of Forensic Medicine of Israel figure that the six hostages could have been killed, the meeting of the Government cabinet took place in which Netanyahu insisted on maintaining the military presence in said border.