Demonstrators in occupied Jerusalem demand Netanyahu's resignation and accuse him of underestimating the lives of Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip (French)
Protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued in Jerusalem for the third day in a row, as protesters demanded that he resign and called for an exchange deal for detainees between the Palestinian resistance and Israel.
Thousands of Israelis demonstrated - Tuesday evening - in front of the Knesset headquarters in protest against Netanyahu's management of the war in the Gaza Strip, chanting slogans in which they called on Netanyahu's government to resign and hold early elections, and they also called for the conclusion of a prisoner exchange deal.
The demonstrators raised banners in which they held Netanyahu responsible for the failure to prevent the October 7 attack (Al-Aqsa Flood) and the failure to return the Israeli prisoners detained in the Gaza Strip.
Today, Tuesday, Tel Aviv also witnessed a similar demonstration of dozens of Israelis in front of the Ministry of Defense headquarters, demanding the completion of a prisoner exchange deal.
For its part, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that violent confrontations broke out between demonstrators and the police, and security personnel used force against the wife of a prisoner detained in Gaza.
Early elections
In a speech from inside the protests, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said, “We demand elections now.”
Barak - who ruled between 1999 and 2001 - continued, "We are angry. In the end, it is clear to everyone that entering Rafah will not happen until after a few weeks, and may take a few months, and by that time, almost all of the kidnapped people will return in coffins."
Barak added, "Whoever abandoned the kidnappers on October 7 is ready to sacrifice them."
He considered that even if the release of detainees entailed a ceasefire, this should happen, "but if Israel submits to whoever leads it (Netanyahu), the kidnapped may not return."
Qatar, Egypt, and the United States are continuing their efforts with the aim of reaching a prisoner exchange deal and a second truce between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel, after the first deal, which lasted a week until early December 2023, and resulted in a prisoner exchange and the entry of limited aid into the Strip.
Tel Aviv holds at least 9,100 Palestinian prisoners in its prisons, while it is estimated that there are about 134 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, while Hamas announced that 70 of them were killed in random Israeli raids.
Source: Al Jazeera + Anatolia + Yedioth Ahronoth