Thousands of people went down on the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday to ask for the end of the war in Gaza, one day after the Israeli government has promised to extend the conflict and capture the city of Gaza.
The demonstrators signaled the signs and retained photos of hostages still held on Palestinian territory when they appealed to the government to guarantee their release.
AFP journalists from the rally estimated that the number of participants in tens of thousands, while a group representing the hostage families said that 100,000 people participated.
The authorities have not provided official estimate of the size of the crowd, although it has overshadowed other recent anti-war rallies.
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“We will end with a direct message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: if you invade Gaza parts and the hostages are murdered, we will continue to you in the squares of the city, in the electoral countryside and each time and to AFP Shahar ZAHIRO, the parent of a killed hostage, AFP.
On Friday, Netanyahu’s security firm has light plans for a major operation to grasp Gaza City, triggering a wave of national and international criticisms.
The foreign powers, including some of the allies of Israel, put pressure for a cease-fire negotiated to guarantee the return of hostages and help to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the strip.
Despite the reactions and rumors of dissent on the part of Israeli military brass, Netanyahu remained provocative on the decision.
In an article on social networks on Friday evening, Netanyahu said: “We are not going to occupy Gaza – we are going to release Gaza from Hamas”.
The Prime Minister faced regular demonstrations during 22 months of war, many rallies calling on the government to conclude an agreement after the previous trèvres saw hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners of the Israeli guard.
Out of 251 hostages captured during the Hamas attack in 2023, 49 are still detained in Gaza, including 27, the soldiers died.
‘A new crime’
The Palestinian Authority (PA) castigated the plan of Israel on Saturday to expand its operations in Gaza.
According to a statement made by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, the president of the AP, Mahmud Abbas, said that the plan “constituted a new crime” and stressed “the urgent need to take action to stop it immediately”.
He also stressed “the importance of allowing the Palestine state to assume its full responsibilities in the Gaza Strip”.
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During the same meeting which approved the Gaza City plan, the security firm adopted a set of principles to end the war in Gaza which included the creation of a new “administration which is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian authority”.
The AP, conceived as a first step towards a Palestinian state, exercises a limited administration on certain parts of the West Bank occupied by Israeli, but has no presence in Gaza managed by Hamas.
A statement published on Saturday by foreign ministers from Italy, Australia, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom again criticized the decision to occupy the city of Gaza.
“This will worsen the catastrophic humanitarian situation, will endanger the life of the hostages and increase the risk of a massive exodus of civilians,” they said.
Russia also condemned the Israeli plan to take control of Gaza City in a statement on Saturday.
The implementation of such plans “risks aggravating the already dramatic situation in the Palestinian enclave, which shows all signs of a humanitarian disaster,” said a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Gaza Civil Defense Agency said that at least 37 people had been killed by Israeli fire across the territory on Saturday, including 30 civilians waiting to collect aid.
Israel’s offensive killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, according to the United Nations.
The attack on Hamas in 2023 against Israel – which sparked the war – led to the death of 1,219 people, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
