Jerusalem
Reuters
Thousands of protesters rallied in Jerusalem on Sunday demanding the release of around 130 hostages still held in Gaza after six months of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Hamas gunmen burst into Israel on 7th October, killed 1,200 people in their homes, on army bases, along roads and at an outdoor rave, and inflicting sexual violence on some of their victims, according to a UN team of experts.
Israelis rally for the immediate release of the hostages, six months after they were kidnapped during the deadly 7th October attack on Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from Gaza, near the Knesset, Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem, on 7th April, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
The gunmen also seized 253 hostages, including children and elderly, civilians and soldiers. Around half of them were released as part of a brief truce deal in late November.
Talks to secure another ceasefire that would include the release of dozens more of the remaining hostages, resumed in Egypt on Sunday.
But some hostage families are wary, with previous rounds of negotiations having gone nowhere and some of the hostages dying in captivity.
“Their families and everybody here has had enough. And people need to understand that and the world needs to stand up and get them back,” said Michal Nachshon, 39, who made her way from Tel Aviv to the protest outside Israel’s parliament
“It’s above politics. It’s above religion, it’s a humanitarian issue and that’s what we’re here to shout today,” she added.
While some hostage parents at Sunday’s rally called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to bring home the hostages, speakers largely kept messages apolitical, focusing on their pain and the urgent need to get their loved ones home.
Asked whether the government was doing enough to bring back the hostages, 56 per cent of people polled in a survey aired by Israel’s N12 News on Sunday answered no, against 39 per cent who said yes.
Over the past few weeks, protests against Netanyahu’s government have intensified with some critics charging that the veteran leader has been dragging his feet in securing a deal – an accusation he strongly denies.
Netanyahu’s cabinet has faced widespread criticism over the security failure of 7th October – Israel’s deadliest single day and the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Some rallies demanding an election be held have been organised by protest groups that led the mass demonstrations which rocked Israel in 2023. Successive opinion polls since 7th October have shown Netanyahu would be defeated by centrists.
Palestinians inspect destroyed residential buildings and a mosque, after the Israeli military withdrew most of its ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on 7th April, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Ahmed Zakot
Meanwhile, Israel said on Sunday it had withdrawn more soldiers from southern Gaza, leaving just one brigade, as it and Hamas sent teams to Egypt for fresh talks on a potential ceasefire in the six-month conflict.
Israel has been reducing numbers in Gaza since the start of the year to relieve reservists and is under growing pressure from its ally Washington to improve the humanitarian situation, especially after last week’s killing of seven aid workers.
The military spokesperson did not give details on reasons for withdrawing soldiers or numbers involved. But Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the troops will be preparing for future operations in Gaza.
Both Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, confirmed they were sending delegations to Egypt.
Hamas wants any deal to bring about an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel has said that, after any truce, it would topple Hamas, which is sworn to its destruction.
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Netanyahu said there would be no deal without a hostage release and that he would not cave to international pressure. Hamas says an agreement must include freedom of movement of residents across the Gaza Strip.
Asked about troop withdrawals from the enclave, Israel’s Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told reporters that the military was adapting its methods to what has been and will be a long war.
Gallant said Israel will press on with the war until Hamas no longer controls Gaza or threatens Israel as a military group.
“The forces are exiting and preparing for their next missions,” Gallant said at a meeting with military officials, according to a statement from his office, and “also their coming mission in the Rafah area”.
Palestinians distribute aid amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at a shelter center in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on 7th April, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Ramadan Abed
Palestinian hopes
Israel says an incursion into the Rafah area, near the border with Egypt, is needed to eliminate Hamas but anxious foreign powers have said it could exact an unacceptable toll on civilians, with more than a million people sheltering there.
Israel says it will evacuate civilians before launching an incursion.
Palestinian residents of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, which has come under Israeli bombardment in recent months, said they had seen Israeli forces leaving the centre of the city and retreating to eastern districts.
Medics said they found at least 12 Palestinian bodies in the area. Some residents from Khan Younis, who have been sheltering in Rafah, began returning to their neighbourhoods after the Israeli troops left.
“It seems at the end it may be a happy Eid,” said Imad Joudat, 55, who lives with his eight-member family in a tent in Rafah, referring to the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday that starts mid-week.
“The occupation withdrew forces from Khan Younis, the Americans are pressuring after some foreigners were killed and Egypt is holding a big round with the Americans, the Israelis, Hamas and Qatar. This time we are hopeful,” Joudat told Reuters via a chat app.
Israel is under increased pressure from the United States, with President Joe Biden demanding that it improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza and work towards a ceasefire, and saying that US support could depend on that.
It was the first time Biden, a staunch supporter of Israel, has sought to leverage US backing to influence Israeli military behaviour. The US is a major supplier of arms to Israel.
Biden has also urged the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to pressure Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and hostage deal ahead of a fresh round of talks in Cairo.
Israel is also on alert for a possible retaliatory attack from Iran in reaction to the killing of Iranian generals on April 1.
