Israel
In Tel Aviv, a human tide requires the end of the war
Several hundred thousand people demonstrated this Sunday in Tel Aviv this Sunday to ask for the end of the war and the return of hostages.
This Sunday’s rally appears to be one of the most massive to date since the start of the war.
AFP
Brandating photos of hostages, drum sounds and slogans calling for the return of Israeli captives, tens of thousands of people, up to 500,000 according to the organizers, took the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday for Ask for the end of the war in Gaza.
“We are here to make the Israeli government very clearly understand that it is probably the last chance that we have to save the hostages detained in the tunnels of Hamas for almost 700 days,” said Arabic, 50, a Arabic teacher.
Demonstrations were organized regularly during the 22 months of war launched in the Gaza Strip by the unprecedented attack of Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023. But this Sunday’s rally appears to be one of the most massive to date.
International reprobation
The mobilization was organized after the decision of the government of Benyamin Netanyahu, just over a week ago, to launch a new offensive against Hamas in the Palestinian territory, and to take it from the city of Gaza and the neighboring camps.
This plan to take control of the most populated areas in Gaza, while humanitarian agencies and the UN warn against imminent famine in the territory, has aroused international reprobation.
In Israel itself, she has further increased the feeling of urgency for those who demand the end of the war in exchange for a negotiated agreement to release all hostages.
681
This Sunday evening in the crowd, many wear pieces of adhesive tape on their shirts with the number 681 writes to the marker, representing the number of days since the hostages were removed.
Translating the streets of the city center, in the shade of the glass towers, the crowd converged on the “Place des Otages” of Tel Aviv-the nervous center of the movement. “The Israeli government has never proposed a sincere initiative for a global agreement and the end of the war,” accuses Einav Tzangauker, whose Matan son is detained in Gaza, addressing the crowd.
“We are asking for a complete and achievable agreement as well as the end of the war. We ask for what is up to us – our children. ” Beyond even the fate of the hostages-another 49 captives in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the army-other concerns are expressed in the crowd.
“Why do people manifest?”
Others are concerned about the fate of their own children enlisted in the Israeli army, and fear that they are soon recalled to fight. “We hope and pray that our government can hear and listen to us,” says Ella Kaufman, who says she is “a worried mother”, with two servants as officers in the army.
“Like Israelis, we do everything to serve and sacrifice ourselves for our country, as long as the government is at the service of citizens. In recent months, we have lost this link and this confidence in our government which seems to follow its own political motivations, ”she believes.
Other residents of Tel Aviv, however, support the government in such sensitive times. “Why do people manifest?” No one knows where the hostages are. So don’t show up against Netanyahu. But to support hostages, ”says Patrick Menache, a 69 -year -old real estate investor.
“Everyone is tired, the hostages are tired, the families are tired, the Palestinians are tired (…) It must end. But the end of this war is first in the hands of Hamas, “he said. For him, “Netanyahu must finish the war”, “and then he will have to leave, that’s for sure”.
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