Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Sunday to demand a ceasefire after six hostages were found ‘murdered’ in Gaza.
An estimated 500,000 people attended planned demonstrations in multiple cities across Israel, according to Hostage Families Forum, which organised protests with Israel’s largest labour union to join in the protests today, Monday, September 2.
According to reports, the protests are the largest demonstration since the start of the war 11 months ago.
In Tel Aviv, protesters marched with coffins to symbolise the hostages who had been killed and others set fires in the middle of one of the city’s main motorways, bringing it to a standstill.
Protests were sparked after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the bodies of Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Alexander Lobanov, 33, Almog Sarusi, 27, and Ori Danino, 25, were found and recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza on Saturday.
The Israeli Health Ministry said post-mortem examinations had determined the hostages had been shot at close range and died on Thursday or Friday.
IDF Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said the bodies were discovered several dozen meters underground while “ongoing combat” was taking place, but that there was no firefight in the tunnel itself.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of killing all six hostages in “cold blood” and said Israel would hold the group accountable.
Netanyahu accused Hamas of spoiling ongoing ceasefire efforts, adding: “Whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”
Meanwhile, Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, blamed the hostages’ deaths on Israel and the US, saying they would still be alive if Israel had accepted a ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to back in July.
Protesters have accused Netanyahu of prioritising his political future above the hostages and putting conditions into potential ceasefire deals that Hamas will never agree to.
Protests also took place outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, where demonstrators tied yellow material over their eyes and set off red-coloured flares.
