Thousands of people took part in protests in Israel against right-wing conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Demonstrators in the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv and the port city of Haifa demanded Netanyahu’s removal and new elections. “We will not give up” and “government of evil,” demonstrators in Tel Aviv chanted as they marched through the city center.
Last year there were repeated mass protests against the highly controversial judicial reform that Netanyahu’s right-wing, religious government wanted to implement. After the massacre by the Islamist Hamas and other groups in the Israeli border area on October 7th and the ensuing war in Gaza, the protests largely stopped.
Relatives of October 7 victims and Israelis who had to leave their homes in the border area with the Gaza Strip and Lebanon because of the fighting also took part in the new protests. According to the Haaretz newspaper, a resident of Kiriat Shmona on the border with Lebanon accused Netanyahu of not taking responsibility for allowing the massacre to happen on October 7th.
Netanyahu reiterated on Saturday evening that the Gaza war would continue “until we have achieved all the goals.” These are the destruction of Hamas, the return of the hostages and “ensuring that Gaza can never again pose a threat to Israel.”
