Protest with thousands of people in Tel Aviv to bring home the hostages. “Netanyahu is trying to torpedo our only chance”

Thousands of people took part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv demanding the return home of all hostages held by Hamas since October 7.

Strong criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calls for elections were also expressed. The protesters carried banners and placards that read “Negotiate now, resign later”.

The protest was organized shortly before May 6, Holocaust Day. “They all have to be brought back. We will not abandon them as the Jews were abandoned during the Holocaust”, said one of the women who came out into the street. She is the aunt of a 27-year-old young man, who was on the list of hostages and who, in the meantime, was found to have been killed. His body has not been found.

The father of one of the Israeli hostages criticized the fact that the survival of the government appears to be more important than the hostages. He called on the government to agree to a ceasefire in exchange for the release of the hostages.

Public opinion in Israel is putting pressure on the Netanyahu government to secure the release of the remaining hostages. Their number is still uncertain. There would be 130 more.

Israel’s Kan TV, citing a government official, reported that Israel is not sending a team to the negotiations in Cairo for now. Israel will send a delegation to Egypt only after Hamas responds to the proposed agreement, according to the news. “Netanyahu is again trying to torpedo the only chance we have to save the hostages,” a statement from the hostages’ relatives says.

While the Israeli Government refuses any cessation of the military offensive until the complete annihilation of the terrorists, Hamas officials met in Cairo with mediators from Egypt and Qatar. They stated that they would not accept any agreement that did not provide for the end of the war.

An Israeli offensive in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would be a “death sentence” for the hostages, the brother of a man detained in Gaza has stressed. Netanyahu cannot remain prime minister “with the blood of 132 hostages on his hands,” he said.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the government should send a negotiating team to Cairo that very night “and tell them not to come back without a deal”.

Publisher: GM

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