1000s take Israeli streets calling Netanyahu to accept ceasefire

Jerusalem: Demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the terms of the ceasefire deal, thousands of Israelis took to the streets across the country and held rallies, The Guardian reported.

Protesters gathered in large numbers at the defence headquarters in Tel Aviv as well as in Jerusalem. In the capital, they marched towards Netanyahu’s residence with a banner reading, “The blood is on your hands”. There were smaller protests in the cities of Haifa, Beersheba, and Raanana. The largest of the demonstrations happened on the Ayalon highway in central Tel Aviv.

The fresh demonstrations took the stage when there were concerns that Israeli forces might initiate fresh attacks into the southern city of Gaza, Rafah, where nearly 1.4 million Gazans crowded together. Also, the Philadelphia corridor is at risk of such incursions from the Israeli forces.

The fresh protests arrive at a time when splits in Netanyahu’s war cabinet are widening, The Guardian reports. Netanyahu is trying his best to hold his split governing coalition together.

Among those gathered outside Netanyahu’s house were the relatives of the hostages Hamas held. One of them, whose grandfather is a hostage under Hamas, held a sign that read, “Rafah, not at the expense of my grandfather”.

Hamas announced that it is ready for the ceasefire proposal brought by the Egyptian-Qatari effort. But Israel reacted that the ceasefire deal did not meet its “core demands”. Israel had told tens of thousands of Palestinians to leave eastern Rafah.

The umbrella group that represents a number of relatives of captives, Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said in a statement that the ceasefire announcement from Hamas must lead to the release of 132 hostages.