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Similar protests occur regularly several times a week in Israel. Saturday’s rally was the largest, with many participants accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of abandoning the hostages and delaying talks with Hamas for his own political gain.
In the attack on October 7, 2023, the terrorists killed nearly 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 people, 111 of whom are still in prison. The military announced that some of them have died.
Negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the resulting exchange of Palestinian prisoners have been deadlocked for months, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of making new demands and blaming each other for the failure of the talks.
— If Netanyahu continues to delay, unless he reaches a deal now that includes releasing everyone, only their bodies, if any, will be returned to us. Netanyahu’s son Matan, who is detained in Gaza, told a rally in Tel Aviv that Netanyahu wants to prolong the war to extend his rule.
Calls for resumption of negotiations
The woman accused the prime minister of not wanting a truce because his far-right coalition partners did not support such a solution. Demonstrators are also demanding early elections, arguing that the current government has failed to cope with the war. Even before October 7, controversial cabinet reforms, including a weakening of the judiciary, had sparked the largest wave of protests in the country’s history. Opinion polls show that if elections were held now, the current coalition could not expect to govern again.
On Thursday evening, the leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar called on Israel and Hamas to resume negotiations on August 15. Israel has already announced that it will join the talks. A Hamas official told Reuters that the group was “considering” the new proposal and needed to consult with its allies on it.
– Israel agreed to hold talks next Thursday, according to media reports. We have experience from summits and meetings that always end the same way. Yehuda Cohen said the mediators reached an agreement, but Netanyahu repeatedly undermined it. His son Nimrod was also imprisoned by Hamas.
US authorities are pushing for the deal as they see it as an opportunity not only to end the war in the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, but also to calm tensions more broadly in the Middle East. The situation in the region is the most difficult in months, with growing fears of a serious escalation between Israel and Iran and its allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
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