TEL AVIV: Thousands of Israelis again took to the streets of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv on Saturday to press for a Gaza truce deal that could free dozens of hostages.
Weekly rallies in Tel Aviv throughout the war, which was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack, have become more critical of the Israeli government since the military announced earlier this month that six dead captives had been recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused by critics of stalling in truce negotiations and prolonging the war to appease far-right coalition partners, has said Hamas militants “executed” the six hostages by shooting them in the back of the head.
Netanyahu has also blamed Hamas leaders for rejecting terms of a possible truce and hostage release deal, while himself facing calls from Israeli critics to make concessions to secure the return of 97 people still held in Gaza, including 33 the military says are dead.
Actor Lior Ashkenazi told the crowd in Tel Aviv on Saturday that “there will be no redemption” if the government allows the Israeli captives to be “abandoned to murderers and rapists for coalition considerations.”
“No one will agree to live under a broken leadership. Cry out, beloved land, for your leaders abandon you.”
As in past weeks, relatives of captives addressed the crowd.
Eli Elbag, father of hostage Liri Elbag, said addressing his daughter: “It’s been a year since I last kissed you, a year since I last laughed with you.”
“We will continue to fight to bring everyone home,” said the father.
Saturday’s protest unfolded in the shadow of increasing cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
Shahar Mor, nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder, said he feared the fight against Hezbollah would again distract leaders from the plight of the hostages.
“Their goal is to focus on the illusion of ‘absolute victory’ that is always just around the corner,” said Mor.
But like during successive phases of intense fighting in Gaza over nearly a year of war, the “corner... always shifts according to specific interests,” he said.
“Yesterday it was Rafah (in southern Gaza), tomorrow it will be Beirut.”
The October 7 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Palestinians militants seized 251 hostages that day, scores of whom were released during a one-week truce in November.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,391 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has acknowledged the figures as reliable.
Israelis rally to pressure government on hostage release
https://arab.news/vch98
Israelis rally to pressure government on hostage release
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused by critics of stalling in truce negotiations and prolonging the war
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
