Massive Demonstrations, National Strike in Israel as Crowds blame PM Netanyahu for deaths of Hostages
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Basil Maghrebi at the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that tens of thousands of Israelis participated on Sunday evening in massive demonstrations unprecedented since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack, especially in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They were demanding a deal of the exchange of hostages that would lead to the release of the nearly 100 Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas, only 60 or so are thought to remain alive.
Israel’s most powerful labor union, Histadrut, announced a national strike for Monday, beginning some labor stoppages as early as Sunday evening. Some retail chains also said they would close in support of the families of the hostages. Ben Gurion International Airport will close, as will schools and universities. Opposition leader Benny Gantz supported closing down the economy in protest.
(The furor was provoked by the discovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages in Gaza by Israeli troops on Saturday night. Three of them had been designated as part of a hostage exchange with Hamas that the Hamas leadership had agreed to on August 3, but in the implementation of which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had placed obstacles. Among them were his military occupation of the Philadelphi Corridor just south of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which is an Egyptian prerogative, and to which Hamas objected. Many Israelis believe that if Netanyahu had accepted the hostage deal in early August, the six who were killed on Saturday would still be alive. It is alleged that an Israeli military unit was approaching a Hamas hideout where the hostages were being kept, and that Hamas terrorists killed them before fleeing. Israeli reporter Noga Tarnopolsky wrote, “Now it’s official, @IDFSpokesperson
confirms hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Alex Lubanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; and Almog Sarusi, 25, ‘were murdered by their Hamas captors a short time before being located by IDF forces in Gaza yesterday.'”)
Arab 48 reports that The Crowd Solutions firm estimated that 280,000 demonstrators came out Sunday evening in Tel Aviv alone.
Some 100,000 protesters in Tel Aviv closed Kaplan Street for several hours. Others stopped traffic on the Ayalon Highway, a freeway in Tel Aviv, until police reopened it. Some of the protesters were families whose members are held hostage in Gaza. In Jerusalem, demonstrators rallied in front of the prime minister’s residence and then completely closed an entrance to the city for two hours. Police sprayed them with water canons and arrested 5. In Beersheba crowds closed off the city’s central street, and protesters came out in Rehovot (12 miles south of Tel Aviv) and in Karmiel north of Akka.
Al Jazeera English Video: “Israelis hit the streets en masse to demand captive deal”
One of the protesters, a woman, mocked Netanyahu’s attempt to blame Hamas. He had said, “Whoever wants a deal doesn’t kill hostages.” But the demonstrator said he was speaking of himself, not Hammas, and was speaking of his cabinet members who voted, she alleged, to sacrifice the hostages. She underscored that “it was possible to get them back home alive.” She added, “The Israeli government and its leader deliberately sacrificed the hostages, leading to their deaths.” She pointed out that the six hostages had been left there eleven months, and killed only a week ago. The hostage families said they want a deal “now!”
Arab 48 reports, that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to “reduce the area of the Gaza Strip and cleanse the area two kilometers deep along the Strip.”
Netanyahu pledged he would make the Hamas fighters pay the price for killing the hostages.
Hamas for its part falsely alleged that the hostages were killed by Israeli fire. (The bodies showed that they were executed at short range.) The terrorist organization said that if US President Joe Biden really cared about the lives of the hostages he would pressure the Israeli government for an immediate end to its war on Gaza.
Hamas had previously announced that heavy Israeli bombardment of Gaza had resulted in the deaths of hostages.
Members of the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades and of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad mowed down over 600 innocent civilians on October 7, 2023, and abducted 251 persons, mostly civilians. During a temporary ceasefire last fall, Hamas released 117 of the hostages.
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