By Moussa Al Wazir | Staff Writer
As the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip approaches its 124th day, the Israeli Army is clearly failing to accomplish most of its war targets in Gaza against Hamas as they have failed to return any of the 136 Israeli captives in the custody of Hamas and other resistance groups. Instead, they officially stated that they accidentally opened fire on 3 Israeli captives who fled from Hamas and murdered more using missiles. Moreover, the Israeli war on Gaza has taken a massive toll on the Israeli economy in general as the Israeli government has subsidized salaries for 360,000 mobilized reservists deployed to Gaza and added more war spending including machinery, medicine, subsidies, and more. The Israeli Finance Ministry officially stated that the war is expected to cost the Israeli economy approximately 13.8 billion dollars. This pressure on the economy led to a significant increase in the prices of goods and services in the Israeli market, especially after the recent Yammani stoppages of ships going to the Haifa Port.
All those events resulted in anger and frustration in the streets of Israel leading to multiple mass protests against the war and government to take place all over Israel, particularly in Tel Aviv. Most of the demonstrators were calling for an immediate ceasefire of the war in Gaza to facilitate the return of the Israeli captives held there. Additionally, demonstrators demanded the dismissal of the current Israeli war government led by the leader of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu.
The prosecution of Nentanyahu in particular was one of the main calls in those protests as many Israelis consider him accountable for the events that took place on the 7th of October as they believed that he failed to perform his duties and responsibilities towards Israel. Multiple protests organized by families of the136 captives took place outside of Netanyahu’s house in Tel Aviv, demonstrators were holding signs saying statements such as “jail now” or “re-elections now” and presented a poll showing that more than three-quarters of Israelis believe that Netanyahu should resign. Moreover, Several Israeli mayors of southern councils close to the Gaza Strip spent the night of Monday, February 5, sleeping on the couches in Netanyahu’s office in an attempt to get assurances that the settlers of the south of Israel would be able to return to their houses safely.
From his side, Netanyahu hasn’t claimed any responsibility for his continuing failures. Instead, he keeps rejecting ceasefire deals to elongate his position as prime minister and postpone his inevitable departure. To date, the families of the captives stated that he is not cooperating with them and that his politics and policy in Gaza are benefiting Hamas more.
Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/gallery/2024/1/28/thousands-rally-across-israel-calling-for-netanyahus-resignation
https://www.timesofisrael.com/southern-mayors-camp-in-netanyahus-office-to-protest-plan-to-send-evacuees-home/
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/protesters-outside-israeli-pm-netanyahus-house-anger-grows-2023-11-04/
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/economy/2024/1/27/has-the-war-on-gaza-hurt-israels-economy
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/gallery/2024/1/6/thousands-protest-in-israel-demanding-captive-release-government-to-resign