Tens of thousands in Tel Aviv, other cities protest Gaza war escalation
Tens of thousands of settlers have rallied across the Israeli-occupied territories to vent anger at prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for intensifying war on Gaza.
Rallies were held in several areas, including at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, where participants called for the release of those held by Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups, even at the cost of ending the war, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
According to the newspaper, the captives’ families participated in the central demonstration in Tel Aviv, and were headlined by activist lawyer Eliad Shraga.
A protest led by the families of captives was also held outside the Kirya military headquarters.
Similar rallies were staged in other areas across the Israeli-occupied lands, namely the central city of Rehovot, the coastal city of Haifa, and the Karkur Junction near Wadi Ara.
Earlier on Saturday, thousands of settlers marched in Kiryat Bialik city, calling for the release of Matan Angrest, an Israeli soldier who was taken captive on October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm into the occupied territories.
The protests came as the official broadcasting authority KAN said Israel is preparing to launch an “intensified phase” of “Gideon’s Chariots” invasion of the Gaza Strip by deploying thousands of additional soldiers.
The report, citing unnamed political sources, said the new phase aims to seize and occupy more territory in northern and central Gaza, in parallel with the forced displacement of large numbers of Palestinians toward the south.
“The goal is to reach new areas inside Gaza as part of a ground maneuver largely reliant on aerial assaults,” the sources said.
The escalation follows a wide-ranging ground assault launched last Sunday, marking the operational implementation of “Gideon’s Chariots,” which includes the full expulsion of Palestinians from combat zones.
The Israeli military currently operates with five divisions in Gaza—Divisions 98, 252, 143, 36 and 162—alongside the elite Nahal and Golani brigades.
On Saturday, the Israeli regime deployed its entire standing army infantry and armored brigades to the Gaza Strip amid serious escalation of its 19-month-old war of genocide against the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu claims the “intensified” onslaught has been launched with the aim of “eliminating” Hamas, but it has not led to any encounter between the resistance movement yet, according to Israeli outlets.
The war, however, keeps exacting a staggering death toll among Gaza’s civilians amid growing reports of deaths from starvation for the first time since the October 2023 invasion.
Israel’s deployment of its entire standing army infantry and armored brigades to the Gaza Strip came amid renewed negotiations in Qatar to reach a ceasefire agreement.
The talks began last week after the release of Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander, and have yet to make any progress.
Resistance groups in the Gaza Strip are reportedly holding 58 captives, including 57 of the 251 caught by Hamas-led resistance fighters on October 7, 2023.
They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the Israeli military. Of them, 20 are believed to be alive.
Hamas released 30 captives — including 20 Israeli settlers, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight captives killed in the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of Gaza during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional captive, Alexander, earlier this month.
The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement also freed 105 Israeli settlers during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four captives were released before that in the early weeks of the war.
In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 Palestinian abductees as well as Gazans detained during the ongoing genocidal war against the besieged territory.
Eight Israeli captives have been found by the regime’s troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another Israeli soldier killed in 2014, identified as Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 58 captives.
