More than 100,000 Israelis march in Jerusalem to demand release of hostages

Drone view of anti-government protesters begin a lengthy demonstration in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, March 31, 2024 (Reuters)

Nails 100,000 peopleAccording to organizers, gathered this Sunday Jerusalem To protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and call for early elections due to his management of the war. Gaza StripWhich is around six months.

For the first time, the anti-government protests were joined by relatives of hostages kidnapped by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, who also demanded an agreement that would facilitate the release of 130 detainees still held in the enclave.

It is the largest protest in Israel since the war began, with 100,000 people attending.According to the organizers’ estimates.

“If you can’t bring them back, step aside, walk away. We need someone to replace him who can do that.”the daughter of Hanna Katzir, one of the hostages released during a seven-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last November, said during the protest.

Speaking to the media at the same time as the march, the Prime Minister assured that calling early elections would only hamper talks to free the abducted people. “The first person to thank for this will be Hamas,” he said.

Netanyahu guaranteed he was doing everything in his power to get the hostages back, but that’s not the case The Islamist group’s demands at talks in Doha (Qatar) “are a threat to national security.”

Protesters are demanding the release of hostages

The protesters don’t see it the same way. “Netanyahu does not want the hostages to return home because he knows that in that case they would face pending trials and could go to jail. That’s why it’s dragging out this war for so long,” Maya Gal, 70, who took part in the march against the government this Sunday, told EFE.

According to Maya, the President “does not care about soldiers or hostages, only about his own political interests.”

Netanyahu’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, Criticized the authorities’ decision not to cancel the spring recess of the Knesset (parliament), which lasts six weeks and would begin on April 7.

“We have no alternative to those who are fighting in Gaza. “Why should the Knesset go on vacation at a time like this?” Lapid said during a speech at the protests, which will last for four days as demonstrators plan to set up tents in front of parliament.

The protests brought together various Israeli movements and groups to demand the resignation of the president. Among them, dozens of Army Reserve soldiers who gathered in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, where they asked yeshiva students (Talmudic schools) to enlist.

For decades, ultra-Orthodox youth of military age have been able to avoid conscription if they were enrolled in schools where they study Torah and, through annual extensions, if they reached the age of 26. Managed, current military exemption age, without enlisting.

But a government provision approved in June 2023 expires at midnight this Sunday, meaning recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox could begin tomorrow.

Following the massive mobilization of 287,000 reserve troops for the war in Gaza, which has now lasted nearly six months, in addition to the deployment of battalions of troops to both the northern border with Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, many Israelis are calling on Netanyahu to do so. Are asking for. All youth in Israel perform their “military duty”.

But his current government coalition depends on the significant support of ultra-Orthodox parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – who oppose conscription and have the ability to topple the executive if they are forced to do so. Are.

Israel’s Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, today sent letters to the Defense and Education Ministries asking them to begin work on the ultra-Orthodox recruitment plan starting tomorrow.

Netanyahu today expressed confidence that an agreement between political groups would solve the problem of ultra-Orthodox recruitment.

The Prime Minister will face surgery this Sunday on a hernia that was discovered on Saturday, but he assured he would be back at work soon.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, about a dozen journalists were injured in an Israeli bombardment of the courtyard of the Martyrs al-Aqsa hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah, the most important in the central area of ​​Gaza, killing two, according to a Gaza Health Ministry source. happened.

Hamas officials announced that the number of journalists killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war has reached 137 today, after a photojournalist working for several media outlets was killed in al-Maghazi refugee camp. His house was bombed. Balah near Der Al.

According to Gaza Ministry figures, about 32,800 people have been killed since the war began, more than 70% of whom are women and children, and about thirty children have died of acute malnutrition due to impending famine in the enclave. Health ,

With information from EFE

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