Published January 14,2024
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Several thousand protesters in
Tel Aviv have called for the resignation of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing his government of not doing enough to bring home the
hostages still held by Hamas in the
Gaza Strip.
The protest came on the eve of what will mark 100 days since the beginning of the Gaza war, triggered by the cross-border attack carried out by
Hamas fighters on October 7. They killed some 1,200 people in
Israeli border communities near
Gaza and abducted around 240 people into the Palestinian coastal area.
Israel responded by pounding
Gaza with airstrikes and launching a ground offensive into the strip. During a ceasefire in November, 105 hostages were released in return for 240
Palestinian prisoners, but there have been few signs of hope since then for the families of those still being held.
Close to 24,000
Palestinians have been killed amid Israel's massacre-level attacks to eliminate Hamas from Gaza, according to the health authorities in the coastal area.
Netanyahu's popularity plummeted following the
October 7 attack, with the Israeli public accusing him of having failed to sufficiently prepare the security forces for such an attack.
An attempt by Netanyahu, who leads a government coalition that includes
ultra-religious and far-right parties, to push through a highly controversial judicial reform had sparked a wave of
mass protests last year. The plans were struck down by the
Supreme Court earlier this month.
People also took to the streets against
Netanyahu in other Israeli cities on Saturday evening, with some 1,000
protesting in the coastal towns of Haifa and Caesarea, according to Israeli media reports.
