Netanyahu unleashes protests in front of Parliament; Thousands of Israelis call for new elections

Thousands of people gathered this Monday in front of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) to call for early elections and a ceasefire agreement with Hamas to free the hostages in the Gaza Strip.

“Although this Government has the majority in Parliament, it does not represent what the majority of society wants right now. This Government is doing a lot of damage to our country,” an Israeli couple who prefer to remain anonymous explained to EFE. “More and more countries reject us because of the decisions they are making,” they added.

The protest, in which according to the organizers more than 100,000 people have participated, is part of a week of actions called by numerous civil groups critical of the management of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and which aim to mobilize a million Israelis to demand the calling of elections.

“I came here because I want to show my support for my country. We want all the hostages back and an end to this war. We want a new era in Israel without Netanyahu,” said Sharon Zivony, an Israeli woman.

Lauren Barr, another protester, said she wanted to come to the protest to demand the calling of early elections: “I don’t know if they will be called soon, but at least we have to try.”

Regarding the war in Gaza, the woman considered that there is no time to waste in “looking for a solution now to end it.”

Netanyahu dissolves War Cabinet

The demonstration took place on the same day that Netanyahu announced the dissolution of the War Cabinet, the mechanism created on October 11 to make decisions on the military operation in the Gaza Strip, following the resignation of former minister Benny Gantz.

The dissolution of the body comes just a week after Gantz, leader of the National Unity party, former chief of the General Staff and former Minister of Defense, and his partner Gadi Eisenkot left it due to their disagreements with Netanyahu, leaving two vacant seats that were already claimed by the extreme right.

Sensitive decisions about the war will now be made in a smaller consultation forum in which the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, will participate; Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer; the head of the National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the ultra-Orthodox leader of the Shas party, Arieh Deri, from Netanyahu’s inner circle.

The new system prevents the entry into the power circle of the war of Netanyahu’s two government partners from the far-right wing, the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and the head of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich.

Meanwhile, the war in the Gaza Strip continues, although with a lower number of victims than usual after the announcement yesterday by the Israeli Army that it will pause the fighting to allow the movement of humanitarian aid from the Kerem Shalom crossing. in the south, towards Khan Yunis.

Half of Hamas battalions eliminated in Rafah

The Israeli Army assured this Monday that it has already eliminated more than 500 Hamas fighters in the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where a military operation widely criticized by the international community began in early May.

As a result of the attacks, two of the group’s four battalions in the town have been practically dismantled, while the remaining two are “at low operational levels,” according to the armed forces.

During their operations in the south of the enclave, soldiers destroyed “dozens of tunnel mouths and two tunnels more than a kilometer long,” in addition to identifying 230 tunnel mouths and about 20 kilometers of underground passages, the Army said in a statement. release.

Many of these tunnel mouths were in the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, which runs along the border with Egypt, and which was taken by Israeli forces at the end of May. According to Israel, Hamas used these entrances to transport weapons to Gaza.

According to Israeli media reports today, the military estimates that in two weeks they will have control of all of Rafah, from where more than a million civilians have fled, the majority already displaced by the fighting in other parts of the Strip.

At least 37,347 people have died, and thousands more are still buried under rubble, in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli offensive against Hamas began following the attacks.