New mass demonstrations in Israel for Gaza deal

Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu is under pressure in his own country. Critics are finally demanding an agreement to release the Hamas hostages. Negotiations on this are stalling, but are expected to continue.

While Israel’s army continues to crack down on the Islamist Hamas in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, new mass demonstrations are taking place in Israel. At the main rally in the port city of Tel Aviv and further protests in other Israeli cities, participants demanded an agreement with Hamas to release around 100 hostages. According to local media reports, the organizers spoke of 500,000 demonstrators in Tel Aviv alone.

“We must not sacrifice any more lives, we must not sacrifice them (the remaining hostages),” said the relative of a hostage shot by the Islamist extremists at the rally in Tel Aviv. “Their time is running out.”

Hamas terrorists killed Carmel Gat and another woman and four men last week with close-range gunfire. The Israeli military found their bodies in a tunnel in Gaza, it announced last Sunday. “The six would be here with us today if (Israel Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu had said yes to a deal,” Gat’s relative shouted to the crowd with sadness and anger in her voice.

Hamas and other Islamist terrorist groups invaded southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 250 others hostage in the Gaza Strip. The unprecedented massacre triggered the Gaza War. According to Israeli figures, 101 people are still being held captive by Hamas, although it is unclear how many of them are still alive.

The indirect negotiations for their release, in which the USA, Egypt and Qatar are mediating between the conflicting parties, have been going around in circles for months without any results. The multi-stage agreement being sought would also include an end to the war, the withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip and the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

Critics accuse Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu of trying to torpedo the conclusion of such an agreement with excessive demands – such as the permanent presence of the Israeli military in strategic locations in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu governs in a coalition with right-wing extremist parties that reject any concessions to Hamas and threaten him with the collapse of the government coalition.

The head of the US foreign intelligence service CIA, William Burns, has announced further indirect negotiations. “We will present this more detailed proposal in the next few days, I hope, and then we will see,” Burns said at an event hosted by the Financial Times newspaper in London. He usually leads the US delegation at the indirect negotiations, which usually take place in Cairo or Doha.

US media recently reported on a planned final proposal for an agreement. If both parties to the conflict do not accept this, it could mean the end of the negotiations, it was said. According to Burns, there is an immense amount at stake – including for the future and security of the entire Middle East region.

The necessary progress in the negotiations is ultimately “a question of political will,” he said. He deeply hopes that the leadership of both parties to the conflict will make the necessary tough decisions and make political compromises, Burns said.

Meanwhile, the military clashes between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon continue. During the night, sirens wailed in the border town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, the Israeli military announced. In total, more than 50 missiles were fired from Lebanon. The air defense intercepted most of them. At least two missiles hit the evacuated town of Kiryat Shmona and caused damage, reported the “Times of Israel”, citing the authorities. There were no injuries.