Tens of thousands have rallied in Jerusalem to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demand early elections over his handling of the six-month war in the Gaza Strip.
During one of the largest protests since the country went to war, demonstrators in Jerusalem called for the government to resign and a quick deal to release the hostages held by Hamas militants.
Israeli society was broadly united immediately after October 7, when Hamas killed some 1200 people during a cross-border attack and took 250 others hostage.
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Following nearly six months of conflict and more than 32,000 Palestinians killed, divisions over the leadership of Netanyahu have been sparked.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid sharply criticised Netanyahu at Sunday’s demonstration.
He claimed the prime minister was destroying Israel’s relations with the US and leaving the Hamas hostages to their fate.
Netanyahu was doing “everything for politics, nothing for the country,” Lapid said.
Netanyahu firmly rejected the criticism and calls for a new election.
“Calls for an election now, at the height of the war, a moment before victory, will paralyse Israel for at least six months, in my estimation even eight months,” he said.
A new election would also stall negotiations over the release of more hostages in return for a ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of Palestinian prisoners, Netanyahu said.
This would “bring about an end to the war before the goals are achieved” and thus play into the hands of Hamas in particular, he said.
The Israeli prime minister emphasised that he was obliged to bring all hostages home. “I won’t leave anyone behind,” he said.
Some hostage families agreed that now is not the time for elections.
“I don’t think that changing the prime minister now is what will advance and help my son to come home,” Sheli Shem Tov, whose son Omer was kidnapped from a music festival, told Israel’s Channel 12.
“To go to elections now will just push to the side the most burning issue, which is to return the hostages home.”
Easter strikes on Al-Aqsa Hospital
Israeli strikes killed 77 Palestinians in Gaza in the past 24 hours, health authorities said on Sunday, as Egypt hosted an Israeli delegation for a new round of talks in a bid to secure a truce with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
The Israeli military said it killed a senior Islamic Jihad militant in a strike on a command centre in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. It did not mention his name or rank.
There was no immediate comment from Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas.
Palestinian health officials and Hamas media said the strike hit several tents inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital, killing four people and wounding several, including five journalists.
At Gaza City’s The Holy Family Church some Christian Palestinians took part in a sombre Easter service.
“My wish is that they leave us alone and that we go back to our lands and children,” said Winnie Tarazzi, a Gaza woman praying at the church.
The World Court on Thursday unanimously ordered Israel, accused by South Africa of genocide in Gaza, to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies to the population.
It comes as the United Nations and its partners warned famine is setting in, as Israel has restricted aid into the enclave.
At least 30 Palestinians have died of malnutrition in Gaza, including 24 children, according to the Ministry of Health there.
-With Reuters and CNN
