Scores of protesters gathered in several cities across Israel on Saturday, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government make the hostages in Gaza their top priority.
In Tel Aviv, people protested outside the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces, blocking traffic and chanting anti-government slogans.
Eran Nisan, a peace activist from the progressive Israeli group Mehaskim, has been participating in anti-government rallies since January last year. On Saturday, he handed out T-shirts and stickers bearing derogatory messages about Israel’s far-right Defense Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Nissan said the central demand of the protests was a ceasefire agreement for hostages. “The hostage issue is the first, second and third priority,” he told CNN, adding that he believes the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Shinwar on Wednesday has provided an opportunity to finally agree on a deal.
“There is a solid majority and consensus in Israeli society on this, 105 hostages (already) have been brought under a deal,” he said, referring to the weekly ceasefire and hostage exchange held last November.
There are still 101 hostages in Gaza, Israeli officials say, but about a third of them are presumed dead.
He added that he believed the current government was interested in prolonging the war.
“When the war is over, they will have to answer questions about how they were complicit in bringing Israel to the October 7th (terrorist attack), and they know there is going to be a national inquiry and there will be a demand for an election. Any poll you see right now shows they are going to be hit hard. It shows that it is going,” he said.
Saturday’s large-scale demonstrations were the first in Israel since the government banned large gatherings, citing security concerns, following an Oct. 1 Iranian ballistic missile attack that Iran said was in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
