Israeli protesters have stormed a parliamentary committee session in al-Quds amid growing outrage over Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a deal to end hostilities in Gaza and release hostages.
A group of 20 people pushed into the Knesset Finance Committee discussion on Monday, demanding action from the lawmakers to free their family members held by the fighters of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas since October 7, 2023.
A woman held up pictures of three family members, saying, “Just one I’d like to get back alive, one out of three!”
Other protesters, clad in black T-shirts, held up signs reading, “You will not sit here while they die there.”
“Release them now, now, now!” they chanted.
A group of protests also gathered outside Netanyahu’s coastal residence, calling on the head of the regime to work for the release of hostages.
Netanyahu has so far rejected any deal with Hamas for the release of captives. On Sunday, he once again rejected conditions presented by Hamas to end the conflict in exchange for the release of hostages. He says such a prospect means “surrender.”
Out of the 253 hostages Israel says Hamas captured during Operation Al-Aqsa Storm of October 7, the regime believes 132 are still in Gaza, of whom 104 are thought to be alive.
A growing number of reports suggest that Israeli military forces may have been responsible for the death of their own soldiers in Hamas custody.
On Friday, the mother of a slain Israeli soldier who was held captive by Hamas said the regime’s forces gassed her son to death while he was being held in a tunnel in Gaza. And Hamas said in mid-January that two of the hostages had been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
