A large bloodstained Israeli flag was flying Friday night on Menahem Begin Avenue in Tel-Aviv, in front of the Ministry of Defense. The man carrying it was outraged, as were the hundreds of people around him. They were not against the war in Gaza, but despite the beginning of the Sabbath, they took to the streets to demand an end to the fighting in the strip. The outrage stemmed from the announcement hours earlier by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that troops had "mistakenly" killed three hostages taken during the October 7 terrorist attack because they had confused with Hamas fighters. Yesterday it was known that they had their hands up, were shirtless and waving a white flag. In addition, the Government also reported that twenty more hostages would have died "murdered" by Hamas, so that the number of abductees would be reduced to about 118, although it is not known with certainty.
With a megaphone, a woman directed the slogans in the middle of the avenue, cut off by the police: "All of them, now!", a cry that is heard repeatedly every day in front of the Ministry of Defense but that since Friday has a lot more weight They are all hostages; the families are demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu's Government take them back and not precisely through military rescue operations. "Time is running out", said a banner. "Agreement now", read another, with reference to the pact between Israel and Hamas that led to a one-week truce at the end of November, during which 105 hostages were released, in exchange for their release of 240 Palestinian prisoners.
In this regard, another poster called for the release of "all Palestinian prisoners" in exchange for the release of the kidnapped. This was the demand of Hamas that ultimately led to the end of the ceasefire. There are an estimated 8,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. After the truce broke down, Netanyahu ordered the return from Doha of the Mossad team negotiating with Hamas for the release of the hostages, with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, which caused concern and complaints among the families of the hostages, who began to raise their voices and charge against the Government, something they had not done until then.
Yesterday, after the death of the three hostages, it was leaked that the director of the Mossad, David Barnea, had met on Saturday with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Muhammad bin Abderrahman al-Thani, to restart negotiations with Hamas. Last night, in a press conference, Netanyahu confirmed this, although he assured that any negotiation with the Islamist group must start from the military "pressure" that Israel exerts in Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister is experiencing the worst moments since the beginning of the war, but he has no intention of resigning, although after Friday's "tragedy" - as he himself defined it - many Hebrew voices and media they said it was time for him to resign. But no, Netanyahu redoubled the bet, of course, officially granting the re-opening of negotiations with Hamas which, on the other hand, never completely broke down, as several diplomatic sources agreed.
From "I have a broken heart" or "Israel is in mourning", Netanyahu switched to his usual tough speech. "We will continue to fight until victory," he said. "We will fight together and with the help of God", he added, while insisting that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will not govern Gaza, as the US and a large part of the international community want. A disagreement, together with the refusal to discuss the two-state solution, which this week led the President of the United States Joe Biden to say that the Government of Israel had to "change" its position because it was "losing international support" due to indiscriminate bombings that have already killed almost 19,000 Palestinians in the strip.
"Gaza will be demilitarized and controlled by Israel," Netanyahu added, alleging that the PNA has not condemned the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 and that the majority of the Palestinian population supports this action. . "We can't let Khan Iunis be Jenin", he added, to justify the hundreds of preventive arrests that the army carries out in the West Bank during Israeli military incursions, where almost 300 Palestinians have already died since the beginning of the war, twelve of them this week in Jenin.
While the press conference was held at the Ministry of Defense, hundreds of relatives of the hostages protested in front of the building.
For his part, the head of the
