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Israeli protesters demand Netanyahu secure Gaza truce for hostages' return
Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday, demanding the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
Reuters reports that at a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
“I’m here today to support a deal now, yesterday,” said Natalie Eldor.
We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end.
The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls this year on 6 May, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
“The only thing that keeps us going is the hope that Bar is alive and surviving,” said Ora Rubinstein, the aunt of Bar Kupershtein, who was seized along with more than 250 others when Hamas-led gunmen rampaged through Israeli communities near Gaza on 7 October.
Many of those taken hostage are believed to be dead but families want all of those taken to be brought back.
“Everyone must be returned. We will not abandon them as the Jews were abandoned during the Holocaust,” said Hanna Cohen, an aunt of 27-year-old Inbar Haiman, who was initially believed to have been taken hostage on 7 October but was subsequently found to have been killed. Her body is still believed to be being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s government has insisted that it will not stop the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned but intensive efforts are under way to secure a halt to the fighting that might lead to a full ceasefire.
However, Netanyahu faces pressure from nationalist religious parties in his coalition to refuse a deal with Hamas and go ahead with the long promised offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
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Opening summary
Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis. Here’s a rundown on some of the key developments to bring you up to speed.
Thousands of Israelis protested around the country on Saturday, demanding the government accept a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.
Protesters in Tel Aviv chanted “war is not holy, life is”, with some people accusing the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of aiming to prolong the war.
At a rally in Tel Aviv, that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.
The protests, ahead of the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, came as the war in Gaza nears the end of its seventh month amid growing international pressure to stop the fighting.
In other developments in the war:
Hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza rose as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday to continue indirect talks, with what is believed to be a response to a new proposal, reportedly agreed by Israel to halt fighting for an initial 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Egyptian and US mediators have reported signs of compromise in recent days and Egyptian state news channel Al-Qahera said on Saturday that a consensus had been reached in the indirect talks over many of the disputed points. But many analysts remain pessimistic after talks over five months that have frequently broken down. A senior Hamas source close to the negotiations told AFP there would be “a new round” of talks on Sunday.
Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in a raid in a village near the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli military said on Saturday. Hamas confirmed that four of the men killed during the raid in Deir al-Ghusun village were from its al-Qassam armed wing. The Palestinian health ministry said their bodies had been taken by the Israeli military. The Israeli military said an officer from a special police unit was wounded in the operation it claimed targeted a Hamas cell responsible for numerous shooting and car bombing attacks.
Israel this week briefed the Joe Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in Rafah, the southern town where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has sought shelter from Israeli bombardment elsewhere. The officials told the Associated Press that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the U.S. administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in the southern Gaza city would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.
Media in Lebanon reported several Israeli attacks in southern areas in the country, including ad-Dhahira and Kafr Kila, Al Jazeera reported.
