Thousands of Israelis protest on Saturday to demand a deal on Gaza hostages

September 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, according to the organisers, have taken to the streets of the main Israeli cities again this Saturday to pressure the government to reach an agreement for the release of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

“Despite the tension in the north, hundreds of thousands have supported the call,” said the Forum of Families of Abducted Persons. “The people of Israel vote with a standing vote in favour of the return of the hostages by agreement. The living hostages for rehabilitation and the dead for a proper burial in their homeland,” they added, according to ‘The Times of Israel’.

One of the relatives, Eli Elbag, mother of Liri Elbag, has accused the far-right ministers who are part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government of preventing the agreement. “We are clear that Hamas is responsible, but throughout the year there have been opportunities to reach an agreement and you (the government) have not taken advantage of them,” she reproached. For this reason, she called on the 120 members of the Knesset or Israeli Parliament to raise their voices and support an agreement.

He also complained that the military is only now really reacting to the Hezbollah threat. “It’s been a year and now you remember the north? Where have you been this year, while the north was burning? Missiles were falling every day,” he argued.

The Hostage Families Forum also issued a statement criticizing Gideon Saar’s refusal to accept Netanyahu’s offer to fill the position of defense minister currently held by Yoav Gallant, one of the most critical voices of the prime minister within the cabinet.

Saar “is against the sacred obligation of an agreement.” That is why he “cannot be Israel’s defense minister and cannot be at the head of the Israel Defense Forces, whose ideological body is based on moral obligation, on the imperative that no one is left behind.”

In addition to Tel Aviv, there have been large gatherings of thousands of people in Caesarea, Jerusalem, Netanya and other locations in the country.