TEL AVIV, September 15. /TASS/. Thousands of Israelis took to the streets all over the country on Saturday demanding that the government immediately secure the release of Israeli hostages still held in the Gaza Strip by consenting to preconditions set by radical Palestinian movement HAMAS.
The largest rally traditionally took place in Tel Aviv, where thousands of protestors flocked to streets adjacent to the city’s government district. They demanded that the government urgently concluded a ceasefire deal, allowing to bring the Israeli hostages back home.
They were chanting slogans in support of Israel, and carried Israeli flags. Many also brought portraits of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Calls for the resignation of the Israeli government and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as demands of new elections, were also heard in the crowd.
Similar rallies took place in many other Israeli cities as well, including Jerusalem and Haifa.
Israeli hostages in Gaza
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.
In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip. According to Israel, the deal enabled the release of 110 hostages. According to Israel’s latest calculations, radicals still hold up 101 people in captivity somewhere in the Gaza Strip.
On August 15-16, Doha hosted a new round of consultations aimed at reaching an agreement on the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip and the implementation of a ceasefire there. The leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States said in their joint statement after the talks that the negotiations had been held in a positive atmosphere. However, the subseqent rounds of talks in Doha, held on August 25 and 28, were not successful. Netanyahu accuses HAMAS of obstructing negotiations, while the Palestinian side blames Israeli mediators and their unrealistic demands for the lack of progress.