protests in Tel Aviv end war

Tel Aviv (dpa) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets of central Tel Aviv on Saturday to press their demand for an end to the Gaza war and a deal to release the hostages held by Hamas.

Several thousand people responded to the call of the Hostage Relatives’ Forum, a dpa reporter observed. Demonstrations were also reported in Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheva.

“Tomorrow we will bring the country to a standstill,” said Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is one of 20 living hostages in the Gaza Strip, told the rally. She was referring to a planned nationwide strike on Sunday.

“And we will not stop tomorrow, we will not wait for (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to end the war, we will take what is rightfully ours.”

According to the Jewish calendar, Sunday is the first working day of the week in Israel.

Families called the strike to protest the government’s decision to expand the war in Gaza with a new offensive rather than sign a deal to return the abductees, the Times of Israel reported.

Israeli estimates that Hamas is holding the bodies of 30 other abductees in the Gaza Strip in addition to the living hostages.

Months of indirect negotiations on the release of the hostages and an end to the war have not yielded any results.

Netanyahu prompted the security cabinet to decide to take the city of Gaza and the refugee neighbourhoods in the central Gaza Strip by military force.

Despite initial concerns about the risks to the hostages believed to be there, the army initiated plans to do so.

A negotiated solution is not yet completely off the table. There is currently no talk of restarting the indirect talks in which Egypt, Qatar and the United States are mediating.

However, there have been repeated media reports on contacts and exploratory talks aimed at restarting the negotiation process.