At least five arrested in clashes with police
7 (EUROPA PRESS)
Some 500,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday in a new day of protests to demand that the Israeli government reach an agreement to release hostages kidnapped in the Gaza Strip, according to the organisers’ assessment, confirmed by the police. Thousands more people took to the streets in other cities such as Jerusalem and Haifa.
Protesters gathered on Saturday on Tel Aviv’s Begin Street in front of the Israeli Armed Forces headquarters in one of the largest protests since the October 7 attack.
Police have reported that five people have been arrested and have urged protesters to “stop the disturbances,” which ended when the protesters dispersed late in the evening.
Earlier, protesters tried to block the nearby Ayalon highway. “We call on the protesters to stop the disturbances that endanger the police and other demonstrators,” the police said, according to The Times of Israel.
During the demonstration there were also some attempts at confrontation with far-right counter-demonstrators and firefighters had to intervene to extinguish some barricades that had been set on fire.
The demonstration is the culmination of a week of daily protests following the news last weekend of the deaths of six hostages whose bodies were recovered by Israeli soldiers with signs that they had been recently executed.
The protesters again chanted slogans such as “Why are you still in Gaza?”, “Stop the world and save everyone” and “An unsigned agreement is murder.”
The Hostage Families Forum has once again been the organizer of the protests in major Israeli cities, which this time included the participation of former Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, who also served as Defense Minister under current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yaalon was at the rally in Rehovot, central Israel, and helped carry a banner with the message “Until they are home, we will be in the streets.”
Protests were also held in Jerusalem, Haifa, Kfar Saba, Beersheba, Netanya and Rishon Lezion. Tens of thousands of people also demonstrated in London on Saturday to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. There was also a small pro-Israeli counter-demonstration in the British capital.
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