Since the start of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, more than 100 hostages have been released during a week-long truce in November last year. But efforts to find a new truce agreement that includes an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners have stalled
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Thousands of people protested in Tel Aviv to demand the Israeli government do more to secure the release of the prisoners hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
The weekly protests also have an anti-government component: many are calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call new elections and step aside.
“I’m not ready to live in a world full of death. I’m not ready to live in a country with a government that sends us to settle in borders and fight in wars and then abandons us. I’m not ready to live without a father” , said Ofer Kalderon, son of Rotem Kalderon, one of the hostages captured by Hamas.
Hamas launched an incursion into southern Israel last October, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.
No agreement between Israel and Hamas to free the hostages on the horizon
Since Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza, more than one hundred hostages were freed thanks to an exchange with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons during a week-long truce in November last year.
But efforts to find a new truce agreement that includes an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners have so far stalled.
One of the stated objectives of Israel’s military campaign was to free hostages held in Gaza, but in eight months only seven were freed thanks to army operations.
Three more were killed by mistake by Israeli forces after they fled on their own and Hamas says others were killed in Israeli airstrikes. According to Israel’s estimates, around 80 are still held by Hamas, along with the bodies of 40 others.
“Say yes to the agreement, bring everyone home; the living for rehabilitation and their families and the dead for a dignified burial in their country,” said Michal Lubnov, wife of hostage Alex Lubnov.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed over 37,000 Palestinians. It is impossible to know how many were civilians and how many Hamas militants but according to United Nations estimates it is probable that at least two thirds were women, elderly and minors.
Israel’s action also sparked a humanitarian disaster in Gazawhere more than 80 percent of the population has been displaced and Israeli restrictions and ongoing fighting have hampered efforts to deliver humanitarian aid, fueling widespread hunger.
The inconclusive war also has divided Israeli public opinion, with thousands of people taking to the streets every Saturday night to demand the government reach an agreement to bring the hostages home. Some they accuse Benjamin Netanyahu of prioritizing his political survival compared to the life of the hostages.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in southern Gaza have done so queuing under the scorching sun to access water from aid trucks in Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people live mostly in plastic tents. The displaced are struggling with high temperatures, lack of food and water and shortages of medical supplies.
This comes a day after a senior World Food Program (WFP) official said that a “water and sanitation catastrophe” is occurring in southern Gazaexacerbated by the growing number of displaced people from the southernmost city of Rafah.
“People are camping on the streets, on the beach, at most with some shelter. But, you know, we were driving through rivers of sewage,” said WFP deputy executive director Carl Skau.
The same day a UNICEF spokesperson told the BBC that one of their convoys was denied entry in northern Gaza despite having all the necessary documents.
