Relatives of hostages and dead Israeli soldiers demonstrate against ceasefire in Gaza

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MADRID Jan. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –

A group of relatives of hostages and dead Israeli soldiers demonstrated this Monday in Jerusalem to protest the possibility of the Israeli Government agreeing to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

“You do not have the mandate to surrender to Hamas,” reads one of the protesters’ banners, according to the Israeli newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’. There are also many photographs of their relatives with phrases like “Their deaths lead us to victory.”

Among the participants are members of the Tikva (Hope) hostage families forum, a group that defends that only military pressure can lead to the release of the hostages.

Ultra rabbi Dov Lior, affiliated with the far-right party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), has called for mobilization against “the capitulation of the Government to the dictates to release terrorists” and has defended that protesting against the agreement is a “great mitzvah ” or “great commandment.”

“We must frustrate the designs of all those who want to cut up parts of our land, of those who want to release terrorists with blood on their hands as if this would bring them peace,” he argued in a video released this Monday.

“There was no peace, there is no peace and there will be no peace. We must strive to cleanse the land of all terrorists so that the entire Land of Israel is governed solely by the Jewish people,” he added.

Lior defends the construction of Jewish settlements in Gaza and has aligned himself with the two most extremist elements of the Israeli Government, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist Party, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party.