Tel Aviv (dpa -AfX) – Thousands of people have demonstrated in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities for the release of all hostages that are recorded by Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “The time window to bring all 50 hostages, the living and the dead home is now open – but not for long,” said Eli Scharabi as a speaker at the central rally in Tel Aviv according to a report by the newspaper “Haaretz”.
Sharabi (53) was hostage in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza for 16 months. After his release in early February of this year, he had to find out that his wife and two small daughters were murdered from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023 at the terrorist massacre. The family had lived in the Kibbutz Beeri, near the Gaza border in southern Israel. The body of his kidnapped brother Jossi is still captured in Gaza.
Turned to Israel’s government politician, Sharabi said in his speech: “You were chosen to serve this people. With humility, with modesty. It was arrogance that brought the disaster over us
– And we are no longer allowed to return to this behavior pattern. “
According to official Israeli information, 50 people kidnapped from Israel are still captured in the Gaza Strip, of which at least 20 should still be alive. In the Qatarian capital Doha, Israel and Hamas are currently negotiating in indirect conversations about a 60-day ceasefire, which should also lead to the release of ten living hostages and the handover of several corpses of deported. The conversations are considered difficult and recently stalled.
The protests were directed against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because, from the demonstrator’s point of view, it pulls the process of freedom of hostage. Only in the course of the aim of the 60-day fire break should the pages negotiate about a permanent attitude of the fighting and the release of the last hostages. These only have a view of release if there is an agreement.
Critics accuse Netanyahu of wanting to secure his own political survival by delaying the steps at the end of the war. His government coalition includes right-wing extremist and ultra-religious parties that require a military crew of the Gaza Strip to build Israeli settlements there./GM/DP/ZB