Netanyahu criticises protests in Israel against his handling of Gaza war

 

Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised massive street protests against his handling of the Gaza war, and failure to secure the release of remaining Israeli hostages, suggesting demonstrators were giving comfort to Hamas’s position in negotiations.

The Israeli prime minister made his comments against the backdrop of the largest protests in almost two years of war, with estimates that upwards of 400,000 people joined marches across Israel on Sunday.

“The people who are calling today for the war’s end without Hamas’s defeat are not only toughening Hamas’s stance and distancing our hostages’ release, they are also ensuring that the atrocities of October 7 will recur time and again, and that our sons and daughters will have to fight time and again in an endless war.

“Therefore, in order to advance our hostages’ release and to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel, we have to finish the job and defeat Hamas,” said Netanyahu in a statement.

The Palestinian health ministry said on Monday that more than 62,000 Palestinians had been killed in the 22-month war in Gaza.

At least 60 people were killed in the past 24 hours, bringing to to 62,004 the death toll from the Israel-Hamas war that started on 7 October 2023. A further 156,230 had been wounded, the ministry said.

While the day of protest was called by supporters of Israeli hostage families, the scale of the demonstrations suggests increasingly sharp divisions in Israeli society over a conflict that has yet to deliver the return of hostages at a mounting economic, diplomatic and social cost for the country.

With 50 hostages still held in Gaza — of whom about 20 are believed still to be alive — some of those attending the march carried signs referencing the death of the dual US-Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was killed by his captors last October along with five other hostages as Israeli troops approached where they were being held.

Placards repeated a sentiment expressed by Goldberg-Polin’s father at his son’s funeral — “may your memory be a revolution” — adapting the familiar Jewish expression of condolence “may your memory be a blessing”.

Responding to Netanyahu’s remarks, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum lambasted the Israeli prime minister, saying: “They have been languishing in Gaza for 22 months, on your watch.”

Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, was also fiercely criticised by the Israeli opposition leader, Yair Golan, as a man who “lies as he breathes”.

He said: “The man who time and again refused to eliminate Hamas’s leaders before October 7, who funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars from Qatar to finance the tunnels and weapons that threaten our hostages.

“This is the same Netanyahu who strengthened Hamas back then, and it is he who is strengthening Hamas now as well. Netanyahu doesn’t know how to win and doesn’t want to free the hostages. He needs an eternal war in order to cling to his seat and to escape a commission of inquiry [into the 7 October Hamas attack that triggered the war].

“Israel will be liberated from Hamas only once we are liberated from the government of Netanyahu, and [his far-right allies Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir.”

The protests follow the decision by the Israeli cabinet earlier this month to launch a new military operation in Gaza City despite warnings by security officials it would put the lives of the remaining hostages in peril.

On Monday, Netanyahu appeared to receive the public support of the US president for his strategy. Donald Trump wrote on social media: “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be.”

Amid the threat of an imminent Israeli ground offensive, thousands of Palestinians are leaving their homes in eastern areas of Gaza City, under constant Israeli bombardment, for points to the west and south of the shattered territory.

Israel’s plan to seize control of Gaza City has stirred alarm abroad and at home, where tens of thousands of Israelis held some of the largest protests seen since the war began, urging a deal to end the fighting and free the remaining hostages.

The planned offensive has spurred Egyptian and Qatari ceasefire mediators to step up efforts in what a source familiar with the talks with Hamas militants in Cairo said could be “the last-ditch attempt”.

Netanyahu has described Gaza City as Hamas’s last big urban bastion. But, with Israel already holding 75% of Gaza, the military has warned that expanding the offensive could endanger hostages still alive and draw troops into protracted and deadly guerrilla warfare.