Accuse the government of having lost control of the eight-month war and demand a deal to stop the fighting and return the hostages.
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Tens of thousands of Israelis who say they have lost faith in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu protested in Jerusalem on Monday, calling for immediate elections and an end to the war in Gaza.
Many Israelis, anguished over the hostages still held in Gaza and the continuing war, accuse Mr Netanyahu of putting political interests ahead of all else.
They accuse the government of having lost control of the eight-month war and demand a deal to stop the fighting and return the hostages.
Mr Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.
“We came to demonstrate again, the 50th time we are here, in Tel Aviv, everywhere to get rid of this corrupted government, that does not release the hostages, that runs the war in a clumsy way and is responsible for the worst, worst terror attack on us since the Holocaust,” said protester Dror Katzman.
Demonstrators marched from outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to Mr Netanyahu’s private residence carrying Israeli flags and chanting anti-government slogans.
Others referred to the 11 soldiers killed in Gaza at the weekend, one of the deadliest for Israeli soldiers in months, holding a sign that read “Combat soldiers refuse to be killed because of Bibi,” using a nickname for Mr Netanyahu.
Israel’s military says it killed more than 500 Hamas militants in Rafah operation
Israel’s military said it has killed more than 500 Hamas militants in the month-long operation in Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.
The military said it had identified 20 smuggling tunnels with a total length of more than 20km and more than 230 shafts.
The army said that 100 of the shafts were in the Philadelphi Corridor, a thin, demilitarised buffer zone along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Israel has long maintained that Hamas has significant tunnels in the corridor to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza, a claim that Egypt denies.
Future control over the corridor will be a major aspect of any ceasefire negotiations.
Hundreds of Palestinians have died during Israel’s operation in Rafah, including at least 45 people who were burnt alive when a tent camp next to what Israel said was a Hamas military building caught fire in May.
Israel said the deaths were a “tragic mishap”, but even its closest allies have expressed outrage at the high toll of civilian deaths.
Israeli negotiator says tens of Gaza hostages ‘alive with certainty’
A senior Israeli negotiator on Monday said that tens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are alive and that Israel cannot accept stopping the war until all captives are released in a deal.
“Tens are alive with certainty,” the official said. “We cannot leave them there a long time. They will die.”
He said by far most of them were being held by Hamas militants.
The official said Israel could not end the conflict with Hamas before a hostage deal because the militants could “breach their commitment… and drag out the negotiations for 10 years” or more.
The official said the Israeli negotiating team had approved a plan proposed by US President Joe Biden.
“We expect, and are waiting for, Hamas to say ‘yes,'” the official said.
The Israeli government has yet to publicly approve the plan.
Norway boosts UNRWA aid amid warnings of West Bank economic collapse
Norway will increase its funding to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees amid fears of an economic collapse in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has imposed harsh restrictions on money transfers.
The UNRWA, which has played a critical role in providing services in the Gaza Strip, will receive an additional $10 million, Oslo said.
The agency has been cut off from funding by several western governments since January, when Israel alleged that 12 of its employees had taken part in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks.
The UNRWA had about 13,000 employees in the enclave at the time of the attacks, during which militants killed about 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed more than 37,300 people, according to health authorities in the enclave.
